ISTANBUL
A cyberattack has knocked out medical technology company Stryker's global operations, with a pro-Iranian hacker group claiming responsibility, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Thousands of employees across the company's offices in dozens of countries were sent home and told not to connect to any Stryker network, according to a person familiar with the matter and an internal memo seen by Bloomberg. Some workers also had data wiped from their devices.
Stryker confirmed the breach to Bloomberg, saying it was "experiencing a global network disruption to our Microsoft environment as a result of a cyberattack," but said it had found no indication of ransomware or malware and believed the incident was contained.
The company did not immediately respond to Anadolu's request for comment.
The group Handala, a pro-Iranian digital activist collective, claimed in an online statement that it had wiped more than 200,000 systems, servers, and mobile devices, extracted 50 terabytes of data and forced Stryker offices in 79 countries to shut down. Neither Stryker nor any cybersecurity agency has confirmed the group was behind the attack.
Handala said it targeted Stryker due to the company's ties to Israel. Stryker acquired Israeli firm OrthoSpace in 2019, and last year, secured a $450 million contract to supply medical devices to the US Defense Department.
The attack came amid an escalation in the Middle East, which flared since Israel and the US launched a joint attack on Iran on Feb. 28, which has killed more than 1,300 people to date, including then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.