Third reported cyberattack against medical-device maker in 2026
Boston Scientific detected a cyberattack on Tuesday that triggered a global outage of key operations technology, leaving the medical-device maker unable to fill customer orders, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Shares fell more than 4% in early Wednesday trading before regaining some ground in the afternoon.
The SEC filing stated that the company does not know when it will be able to restore its systems. “The incident has caused, and is expected to continue to cause, disruptions and limitations of access to certain of the Company’s information systems and business applications that support aspects of the Company’s operations,” the filing said. A Boston Scientific spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the SEC filing.
The outage halts order processing for a company that reported $20 billion in revenue in 2025. Cliff Steinhauer, director of information security and engagement at the National Cybersecurity Alliance, a nonprofit security training group, said the disruption limits the company’s ability to operate. “Their ability to do business is damaged,” Steinhauer said. “This can cause problems downstream if there’s a shortage of a type of device.”
Boston Scientific has brought in a cybersecurity firm to help investigate and respond to the incident.
The Boston Scientific attack is the third reported cyberattack against a medical-device maker in 2026. In March, pro-Iran hackers struck Stryker, another medical-device company, disrupting its global Microsoft systems and causing employee cellphones and laptops to stop working. In April, Medtronic — which, like Boston Scientific, makes heart valves and other cardiac devices — was hacked in an attack that did not affect operations. More than 3.8 million patients had their personal and health data breached in the Medtronic incident, the company told state regulators. Medtronic faces several proposed class-action lawsuits alleging mishandling of health information and poor cybersecurity.
Setbacks with two heart-disease products last month knocked the company’s stock and led executives to cut full-year forecasts, trimming sales growth expectations by up to 2 percentage points and reducing adjusted earnings-per-share targets by more than 10 cents, to $3.28 to $3.32. In July, Boston Scientific said it planned to lay off staff as part of a new three-year restructuring plan that includes transferring some production lines to different facilities.