An Iranian-linked hacking group has claimed responsibility for the global disruption of one of the world’s leading medical technology companies.
Michigan-based Stryker experienced a global outage on Wednesday, saying thousands of employees have lost access to work systems. It employees approximately 53,000 people globally.
The company is a leading provider in advanced medical technologies that improve healthcare outcomes, including joint replacements, robotic-assisted surgical systems, trauma and neurotechnology products.
The Handala group issued a statement on Telegram, saying it wiped more than 200,000 systems and extracted 50 terabytes of data in retaliation for military strikes on Iran.
Handala emerged around 2022 and has claimed responsibility for a number of cyberattacks against Israeli and Western targets.
The group claimed it shut down Stryker offices in 79 countries and that all extracted data is ‘now in the hands of the free people of the world.’ Stryker is active in over 100 countries around the world.
‘Our major cyber operation has been executed with complete success,’ Handala says in a statement, describing the attack as retaliation for what it calls ‘the brutal attack on the Minab school’ and for ‘ongoing cyber assaults against the infrastructure of the Axis of Resistance.’
Children between the ages of seven and 12, along with staff members, were among those who died in the school strike. There were at least 175 people present during the February attack.
A preliminary military investigation has determined that the United States was responsible for a missile strike on an Iranian elementary school that killed 175 people, most of them children.
Donald Trump had previously blamed the Iranian regime for bombing a school filled with young girls with an American Tomahawk missile on February 28 during the first day of Operation Epic Fury.
The ongoing investigation determined that US forces made the mistake while launching strikes on a nearby Iranian military base, which the school building was once part of.
Officers at US Central Command decided to strike the school using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, one of the premier US intelligence agencies.
The deadly operation on Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, which was full of children, is considered one of the most devastating US military errors in decades.
US officials familiar with the investigation’s findings told the New York Times that questions remain about why the outdated intelligence was not double-checked by officers.
Trump said as recently as Monday that the Iranian regime was responsible for bombing its own school, claiming ‘they’re very inaccurate with their munitions, they have no accuracy whatsoever.’ When asked about the findings on Wednesday, Trump replied, ‘I don’t know about it.’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, 28, offered no condolences in response to the military’s findings that the US killed schoolchildren: ‘As The New York Times acknowledges in its own reporting, the investigation is still ongoing.’
Preliminary results find that the U.S. was likely responsible due to outdated intelligence that mislabeled an Iranian school as a military target