MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Just a few months after a first attack, Europe's largest laboratory chain Synlab has once again fallen victim to a cyberattack. The British joint venture Synnovis was attacked yesterday, Monday, the SDax company announced on Tuesday after the close of trading in Munich. "Some activities have already been canceled or forwarded to other providers in order to give priority to urgent cases," it simply said about the impact of the incident. Experts are now to examine the effects of the attack. Other Synlab companies and sites are not affected.

According to the information provided, this is an independent attack that is not related to the hacking incident in mid-April. This had largely paralyzed operations in Italy. Operations were only resumed at the end of April.

Shortly before this, the specialist magazine "Health Service Journal" (HSJ) had reported, citing internal news from the NHS, that operations had been postponed in several London clinics due to a cyber attack. Blood transfusions were also not possible. Some procedures and operations were forwarded to other providers, it was further reported.

Guy's and St. Thomas' hospitals were also affected. King's College Hospital confirmed the attack to the British news agency PA.

According to the HSJ report, this is a so-called ransomware attack, in which criminals encrypt the data of companies or even the public administration and demand a ransom for decryption. It will take "weeks rather than days" before data is accessible again, the newspaper quoted a source as saying.

Synlab says it operates in more than 30 countries around the world and has around 27,000 employees. Last year, the company lost a good 2.6 billion euros./ngu/bvi/zb