---
title: "Cyberattack Forces Hospital to Revert to Handwriting Everything"
description: "On Friday, hackers attacked the University Hospital Centre (CHU) in Rouen, France, rendering the facility’s computers unusable. But rather than pay the ransom the cyberattackers demanded, the 1,300-bed hospital’s staff reverted to using the “old-fashioned method of paper and pencil,” its head of communications Remi Heym said, according to a BBC News story. […]"
date: "2019-11-22"
modified: "2019-11-22"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/cyberattack-hospital-revert-handwriting-everything"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "cyberattack"
  - "cybersecurity"
  - "hospital"
  - "the digest"
---

# Cyberattack Forces Hospital to Revert to Handwriting Everything

![The staff at a French hospital refused to meet the ransom demand of hackers, instead responding to a cyberattack by handwriting all documents.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/cyberattack-hospital-revert-handwriting-everything.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via Pixabay\</em\>*

## Write and Wrong

On Friday, hackers attacked the University Hospital Centre (CHU) in Rouen, France, rendering the [facility's computers unusable](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50503841>).

But instead of paying the ransom the cyberattackers demanded, staff at the 1,300-bed hospital reverted to using the "good old method of paper and pencil," Remi Heym, CHU's head of communications, [told the *Agence France-Presse*](<https://www.lemonde.fr/sante/article/2019/11/17/le-chu-de-rouen-perturbe-par-une-attaque-informatique_6019491_1651302.html>).

## Waiting Room

Heym also told the *AFP* that the cyberattack caused "very long delays in care." However, CHU wrote in a [Facebook post](<https://www.facebook.com/CHURouen/posts/3013687298645628?__tn__=-R>) that the disruption did not endanger any patients, nor did it result in the leaking of any medical or personal data.

French police have launched a formal investigation into the cyberattack, and the hospital expects to have all of its computing systems up and running again by this weekend.

## Pay Up

CHU isn't the first hospital to [fend off](<https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/cybersecurity/6-hospitals-health-systems-report-cyberattacks-in-the-past-30-days.html>) a cyberattack. But because it's located in a larger city, CHU had the option of refusing to meet the attacker's demands — it could send patients to a nearby hospital if necessary while it sorted out the computer issue.

Not every hospital has that luxury, though, and until the entire healthcare industry makes [cybersecurity a top priority](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/cybersecurity-healthcare-executives>), hospitals will likely continue to find themselves on the receiving ends of attacks — with [patients' lives](<https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/06/hosptial-ceo-forced-to-pay-hackers-in-bitcoin-now-teaches-others.html>) potentially hanging in the balance.

**READ MORE:** [Rouen hospital turns to pen and paper after cyber-attack](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50503841>) \[*BBC News*\]

**More on cyberattacks:** *[Cybersecurity Is a Top Concern for Healthcare Executives](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/cybersecurity-healthcare-executives>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)