A cyberattack forced more than 100 Belgian and Dutch dental practices to close shop. The practices are part of Colosseum Dental Benelux, a parent company with over 130 branches.
Colosseum Dental Benelux was recently hit by a cyberattack. The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) was informed. Some of the dental practices affected have been closed since Thursday 4 August. The website of Colosseum Dental Benelux is offline at the time of writing.
Colosseum Dental Benelux told Dutch media that there’s been a “cyber incident”, but did not detail the malware used. The organization expects its practices to reopen this week. Anonymous sources told Dutch media that employees can’t access the patient information of customers.
Severity
Colosseum Dental Benelux’s response confirms the seriousness of the incident. Data breaches only have to be reported when the privacy of partners, employees or customers is at stake. Colosseum Dental Benelux emphasised that a report was made.
Security company ESET Netherlands sees signs of ransomware. “The shutdown of an operation, not being able to access systems or websites, reporting to the police and AP — it all points in that direction”, CEO Dave Maasland said.
Colosseum Dental Benelux is currently trying to restore the systems. The organization called in external parties for an investigation. Nothing is known about the perpetrators and damages. According to the website of Colosseum Dental Benelux, its practises treat approximately 600,000 patients per year.
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