{"id":356156,"date":"2026-03-20T13:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/356156\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T13:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:18:09","slug":"stryker-hack-impact-deepens-as-cork-facilities-struggle-to-restore-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/356156\/","title":{"rendered":"Stryker hack impact deepens as Cork facilities struggle to restore systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many staff at Stryker remain unable to work more than one week after the Iranian-linked cyberattack<\/a> on the US medical device company.<\/p>\n

An employee working in one of the company\u2019s six Cork facilities said that production is still down there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing happening at the moment. The impact of this is massive,” they told the Irish Examiner.\n <\/p>\n

\n In addition to lost production and productivity,<\/a> employees are also concerned about the hack’s potential impact on Stryker’s hard-won reputation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The global medical device company has more than 4,000 employees in Cork and another 1,400 across the island.<\/p>\n

The Fortune 500 company employs some 56,000 people globally, and it reported more than \u20ac20bn in revenue in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many staff are collecting their reinstalled laptops this week, but some still lack the software necessary to return to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are testing on site and getting things back up,\u201d one employee said.<\/p>\n

“Everything on my laptop was deleted, with Microsoft software reinstalled. They wiped everything on purpose in case anything malicious was hiding there.<\/p>\n

“There’s a real level of care, and everyone\u2019s doing what they need to do to get the company back on its feet.”<\/p>\n

Forging relationships<\/p>\n

One small positive from the hack is that it’s given staff the time to talk and forge better relationships, one employee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having chats with people we didn\u2019t know before, getting to know each other better, that\u2019s been really nice,” they said.<\/p>\n

Stryker was hit by a “wiper” attack, in which the data on the targeted IT system is \u201cwiped out\u201d and cannot be retrieved.<\/p>\n

Iranian hacker network Handala claimed responsibility. It said that the attack was in response to the bombing of a school in Iran, which killed more than 175 civilians\u00a0\u2014 many of them children\u00a0\u2014 after the US and Israel invaded the country.<\/p>\n

Ronan Murphy, the CEO of Smarttech247, said that recovery following a wiper attack \u201ccan be incredibly painstaking”.<\/p>\n

“They literally destroy everything,” he said.<\/p>\n

Recovery now depends on what type of backup systems the company had, Mr Murphy said.<\/p>\n

He has seen a \u201cvery significant\u201d increase in cyberactivity in the last four weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of cybercrime typically flourishes in times of geopolitical crisis, in times of high tension,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are worried, people tend to click on links, and go down rabbit holes following news. That tends to lead to problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s on heightened alert from a cybersecurity perspective at the moment.”<\/p>\n

Searching for weaknesses<\/p>\n

Increased cyberactivity includes the scanning of IT systems to search for any weaknesses to exploit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also includes a proliferation of infected “fake news” websites. These use salacious headlines to draw people to click on links which lead them to the infected sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence (AI) can create websites so quickly now that it’s an easy tool for hackers, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media is such a toxic place, and the algorithms work in a way that they give you what you want to hear.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if you go down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, or you’re left-leaning or right-leaning, that’s the content that will be served up to you.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of looking at non-biased, independent journalists who are professionals and give you a clear view of what’s happening, people\u00a0\u2014 much of the new generation\u00a0\u2014 go down the rabbit hole of following the emotive stuff that draws reactions and feelings.<\/p>\n

\n What better way if you’re a hacker to infect someone than to feed them that kind of endorphin rush\n <\/p>\n

“AI tools can make sites so quickly now to look legitimate, but they are infected with malicious software.”<\/p>\n

Hackers are relentless, and can “come at you in a thousand different ways now,” Mr Murphy added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from Stryker said that it believes the incident has now been contained and the company is in the restoration process.<\/p>\n

“On March 11, 2026, we experienced a cybersecurity attack which resulted in a global disruption,” the spokesperson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Upon detection, we quickly activated our incident response plan and launched an investigation with the support of external advisors and cybersecurity experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cImportantly, the incident did not affect any of our products \u2014 connected or otherwise. All Stryker products across our global portfolio, including connected, digital, and life-saving technologies, remain safe to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now in the restoration process, which is progressing steadily. We are actively bringing our systems back online, and are prioritising systems that directly support customers [in] ordering and shipping.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are co-ordinating with appropriate authorities and external cybersecurity experts as part of our response.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many staff at Stryker remain unable to work more than one week after the Iranian-linked cyberattack on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,4257,61,11829,60],"class_list":["post-356156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cork-business","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}