Cryo-frozen tissue manufacturer suffers cyberattack

Vascular implant manufacturer Artivion said it has been hit by a “cybersecurity incident” that disrupted its operations and “involved the acquisition and encryption of files.” While the company did not provide further specifics, the cyberattack likely involved ransomware.

Details of the data breach were disclosed in a Dec. 9 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in which Artivion stated it became aware of the incident on Nov. 21.

Artivion creates implantable, cryo-frozen tissue used in heart surgeries, in addition to medical devices. Some of its “order and shipping processes” were disrupted during an outage caused by the cyberattack, the company said in its filing.

It did not specify what, if any, information hackers may have obtained. As of the time of writing, no ransomware syndicate has claimed responsibility for the breach, and there is no data trove for sale on dark web forums.

It also remains unclear whether Artivion paid a ransom or if it was able to thwart the breach. HealthExec has reached out to the company for more details and will update this story with any comment received.

Artivion stated it does not expect the incident to impact it financially; however, in its SEC filing, the company added there is a risk that shipping certain products could be delayed as it works to recover from the incident.

The Georgia-based company posted third-quarter revenues of nearly $95.8 million, up from $87.9 million during the same period last year.

Chad Van Alstin Health Imaging Health Exec

Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.

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