UPDATE 1-Abbott investigates two separate cyber incidents, says no operations affected
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By Padmanabhan Ananthan
July 17 (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories ABT.N is investigating two cyber incidents involving unauthorized access to some internal systems at its cancer diagnostics business and its LabCentral portal, the company said on Friday, adding that its operations were not affected.
No other businesses, sites or systems were impacted by the incident at the cancer diagnostics unit, the medical device maker said, adding that legacy Exact Sciences systems were separate from Abbott's systems.
A hacker also allegedly gained access to the LabCentral portal, an externally facing third-party-hosted portal used by Abbott's core laboratory diagnostics business. But there had been no impact to its businesses or customers and no known exposure of sensitive customer or business information, the company said.
Cyberattacks have increasingly targeted healthcare companies, with recent incidents affecting firms such as Clover Health Investments CLOV.O, Stryker SYK.N, Medtronic MDT.N, Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO and West Pharmaceutical Services WST.N.
Such incidents can disrupt operations, impact access to data and add to concerns about safeguarding sensitive information.
LabCentral contained publicly available technical product reference documents, including operating manuals, troubleshooting checklists and product specifications, and did not contain proprietary or sensitive customer or business information, Abbott said.
The company added it had taken steps to address the matter, engaged outside cybersecurity experts and law enforcement, and was continuing to investigate what information may have been accessed.
Abbott does not expect any material impact on its business or financial results from the incidents.