Boston Scientific left nursing its bottom line after cyberattack

SECURITY

Medical device giant warns August intrusion will hit Q3 and full-year sales and earnings as recovery drags on

Boston Scientific says that last month's cyberattack caused enough disruption that it is unlikely to meet its sales growth and adjusted earnings guidance for either the third quarter or the full year.

The medical device giant disclosed the expected financial hit in an SEC filing published Tuesday, two weeks after an intrusion knocked systems offline and disrupted operations worldwide.

Boston Scientific detected unauthorized activity on its network on August 25 and took some systems offline as it scrambled to contain the attack. At the time, it said the resulting outage had affected business applications used to process and ship customer orders, but couldn't say what the incident would ultimately cost it.

It now has a better idea, and the news isn't great.

In its latest filing, Boston Scientific said the disruption is likely to have a "material impact" on its third-quarter and full-year results, leaving it unlikely to meet the net sales growth and adjusted earnings-per-share guidance ranges issued in July.

Boston Scientific expects to recover some of the affected revenue as it clears the backlog, but does not yet know the incident's full financial impact. The company plans to update its operational and financial outlook when it reports third-quarter results on October 28.

The recovery is at least moving along. Boston Scientific said it had substantially restored its distribution network, with major distribution centers processing and shipping orders at or above normal levels. Its sterilization facilities are operational, and manufacturing has resumed at most sites worldwide.

An interruption affecting new patient activations for remote monitoring of certain cardiac devices has also been resolved, according to the filing.

The company has previously said it knows of no impact on devices that are not connected to a Boston Scientific network.

Still, the company hasn't put a date on when everything will be back to normal. It said some systems and business applications remain affected and that it cannot yet estimate when it will achieve full operational recovery.

Boston Scientific said it has identified no evidence of ongoing unauthorized access to its systems, although its investigation remains underway.

Exactly what happened remains a mystery. The company has yet to say how the attackers got in, whether ransomware was involved, who was responsible, or whether any data was stolen. No ransomware group had publicly claimed responsibility at the time of writing.

Boston Scientific said it does not expect the incident to materially affect its long-term financial condition, even if its outlook for 2026 looks considerably less healthy since intruders breached the network. ®