Malware: Hospital and care home, Switzerland 2019
In mid-October 2019, the Emotet Trojan infected the hospital’s network, very probably via an email with a Word attachment.
- Incident · 10.2019 · Wetzikon ZH, Switzerland
- Evidence: confirmed by an authority
- Malware
- Phishing
As of
What happened
Individual users, systems and medical devices were temporarily isolated; according to the IT company responsible, encryption was prevented. The hospital reported no major outages of its central systems and said patients had never been at risk.
- Affected
- GZO Spital Wetzikon
- Industry
- Hospital and care home
- Loss
- no reliable figure
- Business interruption
- unknown
- Ransom demanded / paid
- unknown / unknown
- Data affected
- unknown
- Bankruptcy
- no
- Entry point
- very probably an email with a Word document (macros)
What would cyber insurance have paid?
That depends on the terms. Whether those affected were insured: unknown.
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Immediate help in an emergency
Hotline, IT forensics, crisis PR and legal advice
Mostly covered 7 of 9 business products cover it fully, as an add-on or with limits.
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Costs of getting data, software and systems running again
Mostly covered 6 of 9 business products cover it fully, as an add-on or with limits.
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Loss of income after an attack
Business interruption, only after the waiting period
Mostly covered 7 of 9 business products cover it fully, as an add-on or with limits.
Overview based on public policy terms, as of 06.11.2026. Only your policy and its general terms and conditions (GTC) are binding. No confirmation of cover.
What we can learn
Quickly isolating infected devices can prevent a Trojan from turning into encryption.
Sources
- Gefährlichste Malware der Welt attackiert Zürcher Spital (opens in a new window) Netzwoche · 17.12.2019
«keine grösseren Ausfälle der zentralen Systeme»