The Michigan-founded Stryker, which employs around 56,000 globally, made more than $25bn in revenues last year.

An Iran-linked hacking group has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on the medical equipment manufacturing giant Stryker.

In a statement posted yesterday (11 March), Stryker said that a cyberattack had caused it a global network disruption. “We have no indication of ransomware or malware and believe the incident is contained,” the company said.

In a regulatory filing, Stryker admitted that the incident cut off access to some of its information systems and business applications, affecting operations. It did not know when systems would be fully restored. Bloomberg noted an earlier memo where Stryker said that the attack had pummelled its networks.

Pro-Iranian cyber group Handala has claimed responsibility for the attack, marking what looks to be the first major cyber disruption of a US organisation since the US-Israel war on Iran began on 28 February.

“Our major cyber operation has been executed with complete success”, wrote the X account seemingly belonging to Handala, claiming that the attack was in retaliation for the “brutal attack on the Minab school” and for “ongoing cyber assaults against the infrastructure of the Axis of Resistance.”

In the post, the group claimed the attack “wiped”more than 200,000 systems, servers and mobile devices, and that 50TB of critical data had been extracted. The group also claimed that Stryker’s offices in 79 countries have been forced to shut down.

“You did not take our warning seriously and entered the dangerous  game of attacking infrastructure; now you are witnessing the most powerful and extensive cyberattack in recent years,” a different post on the page read.

The Michigan-founded Stryker has around 56,000 employees and made more than $25bn in revenue last year producing equipment such as orthopaedic implants, surgical instruments and hospital beds.

Reports suggest that the company’s Cork plant, which employs more than 4,000, was affected by the attack. Stryker also has factories in Limerick and Belfast. The Wall Street Journal reported that outages began in the US before spreading globally.

Smarttech247’s director of operations Ken Sheehan said that there is evidence that Handala is targeting infrastructure and service providers globally in order to maximise disruption.

“A number of reports are now linking this group to attacks targeting at least one business with operations in Ireland, which is concerning,” he said.

“Since the latest hostilities erupted in the Middle East, we have been advising clients that the cyber risk would be increasing and extreme vigilance is required to guard against these kinds of attacks.”

He recommended that organisations enhance cybersecurity awareness training, particularly around phishing and other social engineering attacks. Sheehan said that Handala’s main attack vector is still by phishing.

Following its attack on Stryker on Wednesday, Handala’s supposed X page also claimed a cyberattack on Israeli fintech Verifone. Verifone, however, said that it found no evidence of such an attack.

“We have observed recent allegations on March 11 2026 from threat actors claiming an intrusion into our systems in Israel,” a Verifone spokesperson told the Register. “Verifone has found no evidence of any incident related to this claim and has no service disruption to our clients.”

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