Intuitive Surgical discloses phishing breach; Medtronic Diabetes cuts 81 jobs

Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) said an unauthorized third party accessed certain internal IT business applications in a cybersecurity incident that resulted from a phishing attack. The company quickly activated its incident response protocols and secured all affected applications.

Shares of ISRG fell 1.3% to $472.95 apiece in afternoon trading. The company said the incident has no impact on operations at this time and its robotic systems have their own security protocols, operating independently of its internal business network.

The information accessed was obtained from an employee's compromised access into its internal business administrative network. It includes some customer business and contact information, plus Intuitive employee and corporate data. The company said that data was not obtained from its leading da Vinci surgical robotic system or the Ion endoluminal system. Those devices remain safe and operational.

Intuitive said it has a segmented network infrastructure. Networks and infrastructure that support internal IT business applications, manufacturing operations and the da Vinci, Ion and other digital systems, are separate. Hospital customer networks also remain separate from Intuitive networks, secured and managed by customers' IT teams. As a result, Intuitive said those networks also remain unaffected.

The data involved included names, titles and specialties of healthcare providers and administrators, plus emails, phone numbers and hospital facility addresses. The exposed data also included da Vinci and Ion procedure type and length; Intuitive learning course completion; complaints reported to Intuitive's Field Service Engineers; HCP engagement activities such as event attendance, mentoring or proctoring; and reimbursement Program impact documents (also known as Quantify the Impact).

For healthcare institutions, data exposed in the breach included commercial contract data extracts, automated business alignment meeting (ABAM) reports, and service work orders as of Jan. 18, 2026. The data "does not include highly sensitive information such as bank account information, identifiable patient health information, or any customer or employee passwords."

Intuitive's cybersecurity incident comes just days after an Iranian-backed "hacktivist" group managed a "wiper attack" against Stryker, targeting data on Stryker's Microsoft-based IT system and effectively wiping it out so it can't be retrieved. The group said it undertook the cyberattack in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, beginning on Feb. 28, 2026. There is no indication at this time that the breach at Intuitive is related to the Stryker cyberattack or was executed for similar reasons.

The company said it took immediate action to assess and contain the incident, begin an investigation and review security protocols. It also reminded employees of online security training and processes. The company said it continues to communicate with customers and appropriate data privacy regulators. Intuitive has notified "law enforcement and other authorities."

In a separate development, Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) is cutting 81 jobs from its Diabetes unit ahead of its planned separation into MiniMed. A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice filed in California confirms the company's plans to lay off 81 employees at its Northridge facility.

The notice states that Medtronic notified the state of the planned workforce reduction on Feb. 5, 2026. It plans for the layoffs to go into effect on April 7, 2026. The layoffs come as Medtronic looks to separate the Diabetes business into a publicly traded company called MiniMed.