Washington DC - An Iran-linked hacking group claimed responsibility Wednesday for a sweeping cyberattack on US medical technology giant Stryker, saying it had wiped more than 200,000 systems and extracted 50 terabytes of data in retaliation for military strikes on Iran.

"Our major cyber operation has been executed with complete success," Handala said in a statement, describing the attack as retaliation for "the brutal attack on the Minab school" and for "ongoing cyber assaults against the infrastructure of the Axis of Resistance."

The group said it had shut down Stryker offices in 79 countries and that all extracted data was "now in the hands of the free people of the world."

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It issued an open warning to what it described as "Zionist leaders and their lobbies," adding: "This is only the beginning of a new chapter in cyber warfare."

Founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Stryker is a global medical device giant with some 56,000 employees and $25.12 billion in 2025 revenues, making everything from orthopedic implants and surgical instruments to hospital beds and robotic surgery systems.

The Handala group later posted that it had also carried out an attack on Verifone, which specializes in electronic and point-of-sale payments.

AFP could not independently verify the claims.

The outages began shortly after 11:00 PM ET on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Windows devices – including laptops and mobile phones connected to Stryker's networks – were remotely wiped.

The logo of Handala, a pro-Palestinian hacking group with reported ties to Iran, appeared on login screens, according to the Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter as well as social media posts.

Handala, which has been linked to Iran, emerged around 2022 and has claimed a series of attacks on Israeli and Gulf-region companies in recent weeks.

According to the Journal, an internal company notice described "a severe, global disruption across the Windows environment impacting both client devices and servers" and said Stryker had engaged Microsoft to help investigate.