Security News > 2021 > May > Swedish Health Agency shuts down SmiNet after hacking attempts
The Swedish Public Health Agency has shut down SmiNet, the country's infectious diseases database, on Thursday after it was targeted in several hacking attempts.
"The Swedish Public Health Agency has discovered that there have been several attempted intrusions into the SmiNet database. The database has therefore been closed down temporarily," the agency said on Thursday, May 27.
The Swedish Public Health Agency could not report complete COVID-19 stats starting with Wednesday at 4 PM due to the database shut down.
"We taken the incident very seriously and it is reported to the Swedish Police as well as the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection."
The 1177 Swedish Healthcare Guide service for health care information was hit by a data breach two years ago after the company that managed its storage server exposed it to public access on the Internet.
European health care has been under attack the last two weeks, with Ireland's Department of Health and publicly funded healthcare system HSE breached by Conti ransomware operators.