Risk of Hacker Attacks

Cybersecurity on the ward: how to protect patients from a borderless hybrid war

From the management of hospital admissions to intensive care units and laboratory refrigerators: an update on the alert in Italia

by Barbara Gobbi

5 November 2026

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4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

The painting
What are the risks to the health service
Health in the hands of ‘digital’
Maintenance to protect health
The parliamentary question to Meloni and Schillaci

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The warning had come just a few days ago from Health Minister Schillaci, whilst visiting the Biotecnopolo Foundation in Siena, a hub for national security: ‘An attack on a healthcare facility could jeopardise the continuity of care,’ was the warning. This is exactly what nearly happened in France on 4 November, with the sensational cyber-attack – foiled just in time – on several blood banks, aimed at raising temperatures to extremely high levels in order to damage blood products or samples. The French incident, which – against a backdrop of hybrid warfare in which aeroplanes and supermarkets are being targeted – has set off alarm bells in the healthcare sector, is certainly not far removed from what happens every day in Italia.

The painting

In the first six months of 2026, there were 4,911 particularly serious cyber incidents reported worldwide, the highest number ever recorded in a half-year period. In six months, as stated in the report by Clusit, the Italian Association for IT Security, 93 per cent of the incidents recorded in the whole of 2025 were reached, with an average of 819 per month. This represents a surge, against which Italia stands out as a slight exception: in Italia, there were 245 known incidents, down from the peak of 280 in the first half of 2025, and they account for 5 per cent of the global total.

However, it is the National Cybersecurity Agency that provides the most up-to-date figures for Italia: the 485 cyber incidents recorded in September 2026 represent a 57 per cent increase compared with the 309 recorded in August. Incidents are also on the rise, standing at 235 compared with 196 the previous month. Which sectors suffered the highest number of cyber incidents? Technology, healthcare and manufacturing. The technology sector was mainly affected by the exploitation of vulnerabilities and system failures; the healthcare sector by data breaches; and the manufacturing sector by ‘defacement’ attacks.

What are the risks to healthcare

And whilst disrupting the cold chain in the retail sector – as has happened in recent days – poses serious economic problems, as well as issues regarding food supply security and, potentially, consumer health, the risk and consequences of a cyberattack on the healthcare sector could be incalculable. It is not just our health data that is at risk, then – ‘stolen’ and sold on the dark web, as the Clusit Report confirms every year – but also, potentially, intensive care units, neonatal wards and emergency department equipment: if these were to be severely compromised, they could cease to provide life-support to patients.

This is a highly topical issue that raises questions about risk management within organisations. Indeed, they are on high alert: ‘Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue, but a component of clinical safety,’ warns Giuseppe Quintavalle, president of Fiaso, the Federation of Healthcare and Hospital Organisations. The cyberattack that hit the French blood transfusion system calls on all healthcare organisations to exercise the utmost vigilance and to fully implement the security protocols already in place, with the active involvement of those responsible for corporate cybersecurity. The European NIS2 Directive, transposed into Italian law by Legislative Decree 138/2024, reinforces obligations regarding prevention, risk management and staff training. Digital security requires close collaboration between strategic management, cybersecurity officers and healthcare professionals.”

Health in the hands of ‘digital’

In short, compromising a sensor within a hospital could have a devastating effect on people’s lives. “It is a fact that healthcare is an extremely sensitive and critical sector,” says Domenico Raguseo, Head of Cybersecurity at the Exprivia Group, “and to explain this, two aspects must be considered: the first is that today we are highly digitised and interconnected in every aspect of our lives, from lifts to operating theatres to the blood banks where blood is stored; this makes us a target for malicious actors who, with a small-scale phishing campaign against a hospital, can compromise a fridge or a device; the second is the irreversibility of the digital processes we have come to rely on. For example, it is no longer possible to check in manually at an airport, and the same applies to hospitals. We need only recall that a few years ago a patient died after the database of the hospital to which he had rushed for emergency treatment was hacked, preventing him from reaching another facility 40 kilometres away in time.

Maintenance to protect health

For their part, healthcare organisations and hospitals have developed and are continuing to develop a range of safeguards, as Fiaso president Quintavalle is keen to emphasise: ‘The message to the public is one of reassurance: healthcare organisations already have monitoring systems, alarm systems and intervention procedures in place to prevent and manage any critical issues. We are committed to keeping these efficient and up to date, to protect patients and ensure continuity of care even in emergency situations. A concrete example,’ he explains, ‘is the equipment used to store blood and blood components, which is fitted with temperature monitoring and alarm systems. These enable any anomalies to be detected promptly and the necessary measures to be taken to safeguard stocks. ‘In an increasingly connected healthcare system, protecting digital infrastructure means safeguarding patient safety and the continuity of care,’ he concludes.

The parliamentary question to Meloni and Schillaci

Meanwhile, the issue is attracting the attention of MPs: “I have tabled a parliamentary question addressed to Prime Minister Meloni and Minister Schillaci to find out how the government intends to respond to the cyber-attacks that have caused the refrigeration systems of several supermarkets in Italia – as well as in other European countries – to malfunction – says Alfonso Colucci, group leader on the Chamber of Deputies’ Constitutional Affairs Committee. In particular, the risks seem clear to me in the healthcare sector and therefore for the health of Italian citizens: in France, an attack on a supplier altered the settings of the cold stores at three branches of the Établissement français du sang where plasma was stored – he adds. With this parliamentary question, we are asking the government whether it has carried out, or intends to carry out, in consultation with the Regions, inspections at blood transfusion services and hospital pharmacies to ensure that staff can promptly detect, via an independent system, a change in temperature even when the central alarm system is compromised, and that procedures are in place to safely transfer blood components and heat-sensitive medicines’.