Stryker (NYSE:SYK) shares dropped approximately 3% in Wednesday trading following a Wall Street Journal report that the medical device giant has been targeted by a suspected Iran-linked cyberattack.
The breach has resulted in a widespread global outage, paralyzing the company’s internal infrastructure and medical technology systems.
The outages reportedly began shortly after midnight on the U.S. East Coast.
According to people familiar with the matter, the attack appears to have had a devastating impact on the company’s hardware.
Staff and contractors discovered that remote devices running Microsoft’s Windows operating system—including laptops, cellphones, and tablets—had been remotely wiped.
Multiple reports and social media posts indicate that the login pages for Stryker’s systems were replaced with the logo of Handala, a pro-Palestinian hacking group frequently associated with Iranian interests.
While the full extent of the data loss remains unclear, the group's involvement suggests a politically motivated breach rather than a standard ransomware-for-profit scheme.
The disruption to Stryker—one of the world’s largest providers of orthopedic implants, surgical equipment, and neurotechnology—raises significant concerns regarding the security of critical healthcare supply chains.
A prolonged outage could affect surgical schedules and the delivery of essential medical hardware to hospitals globally.
Stryker has yet to issue a formal statement regarding the nature of the breach or a timeline for recovery.