NHS hospitals hit by large-scale cyber-attack

NHS services across England have been hit by IT failure, believed to be caused by a large-scale cyber attack.

A number of hospitals have been hit by a large scale cyber attack, NHS England has confirmed. Hospitals are understood to have lost the use of their computers and phonelines. It has been reported that a pop-up message demanding a ransom in exchange for access to the PCs is appearing on various computers. The attack is reportedly demanding $300 of the digital currency bitcoin, which equates to around £415,000, otherwise the files will be deleted. https://twitter.com/fendifille/status/862997621039878145 https://twitter.com/BlackpoolHosp/status/863032721815285761 https://twitter.com/MidEssexCCG/status/863041872587087876 The BBC are reporting that trusts and hospitals in London, Blackburn, Nottingham, Cumbria and Hertfordshire have been affected. IT specialists are currently working to restore normal order, according to a recently released statement. ‘At this stage we do not have any evidence that patient data has been accessed. We will continue to work with affected organisations to confirm this. NHS Digital is working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Health and NHS England to support affected organisations and to recommend appropriate mitigations. This attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors. ‘Our focus is on supporting organisations to manage the incident swiftly and decisively, but we will continue to communicate with NHS colleagues and will share more information as it becomes available.’