Porto, March 27, 2026 (Lusa) - Researchers from INESC TEC (Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science) and a software development company are set to test a solution at the Alto Minho Local Health Unit designed to protect systems and recover data during ransomware attacks, they announced on Thursday.
The INESC TEC said in a statement that the Rescueware project aims to ensure hospital operational continuity, protect sensitive clinical data, and mitigate service downtime risks when a hospital suffers a ransomware attack and loses access to its data.
System unavailability can directly compromise care in a hospital environment, where data is continuously updated and supports real-time clinical decisions, said Francisco Cruz, founder of InvisibleLab, the project's developer. He said that ensuring rapid and full information recovery is a critical condition for maintaining service continuity and patient safety.
The institute explained that ransomware is a type of malicious software which encrypts files or blocks access to systems after infiltrating computers, servers, or networks.
Attackers demand a ransom to restore access to data or not to leak stolen information.
Hospital systems now rely heavily on digital infrastructures for clinical records, prescriptions, diagnostics, and care coordination, according to the INESC TEC.
This dependency, combined with sensitive clinical data and the pressure to restore services quickly, makes hospitals particularly attractive targets for cybercriminals.
It says that many institutions use legacy technological infrastructures that are difficult to update, leading to severe consequences in the event of an attack.
Ransomware attacks in a hospital context can compromise continuity of care, information security, and institutional trust, said Orlando Dantas, the cybersecurity lead at the Alto Minho Local Health Unit, which covers hospitals in Viana do Castelo and Ponte de Lima.
He said that its participation as a pilot unit in the project reflected a commitment to strengthening digital resilience and protecting critical systems.
According to the institute, the research team will propose an innovative solution to enable the efficient and total recovery of affected critical data, reducing service downtime.
It will combine these results with tools for early attack detection. The InvisibleLab team will then explore and integrate these tools into functional prototypes, while the Alto Minho Local Health Unit tests them in environments simulating digital healthcare infrastructures.
Ransomware detection solutions are extremely important but sometimes fail to identify attacks or do so too late, after critical information is compromised, said João Paulo, the lead researcher at INESC TEC and a professor at the University of Minho.
Therefore, institutions must combine these solutions with mechanisms to efficiently recover potentially compromised data. This approach reduces significant financial losses by avoiding ransom payments, for example.
The coordination between research, technological development, and validation in a real hospital context distinguishes this project, according to INESC TEC.
Rescueware will run for three years with co-funding from the European Union through the NORTE 2030 Regional Programme. The project includes cyber-hygiene training for healthcare professionals to promote an integrated approach to digital resilience.
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