The Cork base of medical technology company Stryker has been impacted by a global cyber attack targetting the firms operations.
The National Cyber Security centre said it is aware of the incident and is liasing with international colleagues.
An Iran-linked hacking group claimed responsibility today for a sweeping cyberattack on US medical technology giant Stryker, saying it had wiped more than 200,000 systems and extracted 50 terabytes of data in retaliation for military strikes on Iran.
"Our major cyber operation has been executed with complete success," Handala said in a statement, describing the attack as retaliation for what it called "the brutal attack on the Minab school" and for "ongoing cyber assaults against the infrastructure of the Axis of Resistance."
The group said it had shut down Stryker offices in 79 countries and that all extracted data was "now in the hands of the free people of the world."
Handala issued an open warning to what it described as "Zionist leaders and their lobbies," adding: "This is only the beginning of a new chapter in cyber warfare."
Responding to reports of a cyber attack affecting business in Ireland over the past few hours, Director of Operations at Smarttech247, Ken Sheehan said: "Our threat intellignce team has been monitoring a surge in cyber activity by the Handala group since this crisis began and there is evidence that they are targeting infrastructure and service providers globally, 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 added. "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."
Founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Stryker is a global medical device giant with some 56,000 employees and $25.12 billion in 2025 revenues, making everything from orthopedic implants and surgical instruments to hospital beds and robotic surgery systems.
The Handala group later posted that it had also carried out an attack on Verifone, which specializes in electronic and point-of-sale payments.
AFP could not independently verify the claims.
The outages began shortly after 4pm today, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Windows devices -- including laptops and mobile phones connected to Stryker's networks -- were remotely wiped.
The logo of Handala, a pro-Palestinian hacking group with reported ties to Iran, appeared on login screens, according to the Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter as well as social media posts.
Handala, which has been linked to Iran, emerged around 2022 and has claimed a series of attacks on Israeli and Gulf-region companies in recent weeks.
According to the Journal, an internal company notice described "a severe, global disruption across the Windows environment impacting both client devices and servers" and said Stryker had engaged Microsoft to help investigate.
Additional reporting Brian O'Donovan and Gail Conway
