Hospital computers across England shut down by cyberattack

Hospitals across England have reportedly been hit by a large-scale cyberattack. Some are having to divert emergency patients

Source
This is bad. Hospitals across England are being hit by a massive cyberattack, and some are currently unable to take even emergency patients. IT and phone systems are completely shut down.
Reports are that attackers are demanding ransom money to lift the attack. That very well may be true, as "ransom" attacks have been happening more frequently. However, it's just a matter of time until major cyber attacks like this start taking place as acts of terrorism. We can see here what sort of effect they can have. Hospitals, power infrastructure, internet... If we aren't prepared for it, we're going to be in a massive world of trouble when it happens.

Oops....and not to mention people's personal info right down to addresses and phone details....not good!

Will be following
Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: trollz

We've long expected something like this in the US. Its probably only a matter of time. And the most vulnerable targets are the power grid and the nuke power plants. It would be easy for them to take out the US Northeast power grid and the Banking and Stock Markets with it. Hospitals seem a bit over the top, but I guess if they want dead people, that's one way to go.

a reply to: trollz

Horrible situation but I don't understand why you need a computer to give someone emergency medical care.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: trollz

We've long expected something like this in the US. Its probably only a matter of time. And the most vulnerable targets are the power grid and the nuke power plants. It would be easy for them to take out the US Northeast power grid and the Banking and Stock Markets with it. Hospitals seem a bit over the top, but I guess if they want dead people, that's one way to go.

It happened in the US last year.

www.bbc.co.uk...

a reply to: TonyS

And the most vulnerable targets are the power grid and the nuke power plants.

not any more
nerc and ferc have been implementing and updating standards for the last decade
not many things are connected to the web these days

a reply to: trollz

How is this not a terrorist attack?

originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: trollz

Horrible situation but I don't understand why you need a computer to give someone emergency medical care.

It doesn't, it depends how much of the system is internet facing. Booking patients in, knowing their history, schedule of bookings to show beds available - even down to availability of staff, operations etc.

Like I say, depends how much is internet v intranet. I'm a little surprised, I know the NHS used to have a private network that would take more than the average hack to get into, don't know if that changed at some point.

originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: trollz

Horrible situation but I don't understand why you need a computer to give someone emergency medical care.

I was admitted Sunday morning and discharged Tuesday afternoon. without access to my latest CT scan i guess discharge and treatment could have been delayed.

One example why a computer and data is needed

originally posted by: 0racle
a reply to: trollz

How is this not a terrorist attack?

By the looks of it, the intention was to carry out the attack as a means of generating money for the attackers, as opposed to simply doing it to cause as much death and destruction as possible for political or religious purposes. That doesn't make it any more or less worse, it's just a different intention. If the attackers had kept silent and not demanded money, then sure, it could be potentially considered a terrorist attack.

Looks like this is spreading to mainland Europe too

www.bbc.co.uk...

Let me shed a little bit of light on this. I work in a hospital, IT based job. When all the computers/servers are compromised it doesn't matter if they are internet facing or not. However, they should be able to go to downtime procedures where they can use paper instead of the computer. Even without any medical history (think a trauma patient that is unconscious) you can still treat a patient. I really don't understand how they can justify "shutting down" hospitals.

JT

a reply to: Greenblaz

They need to know where to send the bill!

a reply to: Bluntone22

Don't worry, they get the info from the patient on paper instead of typing it into the computer. They still get paid lol

JT

Expect more of this sort of thing to happen all over.

Recently I was told a story where, a police dpartment was hit with ransomware.

The police chief came up to a someone I know, that the chief knew was into crypto, and asked to buy bitcoins in order to pay the ransom.

The hackers were really nice and lowered the cost of the ransom. And they even helped the cops to decrypt the files.

LOL

who hacks a health service, lol this close to an election, i guess this is the Tories trying to scare you into voting them in

Alas on a integrated system such as this only takes one person to open the wrong thing and it spreads . Seen it happen on under prepared networks before.

Let's face it, the millions pumped into the it upgrade years ago which was a disaster is still around and most likely hasn't been upgraded what so ever

a reply to: trollz

al shebab pirates demand ransom all the time isis demanded ransoms ...
these guys are demanding a ransom...

all im saying is it looks like terrorism sounds like terrorism ...how is it not terrorism,,,

originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: trollz

Horrible situation but I don't understand why you need a computer to give someone emergency medical care.

Whenever we've had to deal with hospitals, the nurses are constantly scanning barcodes to keep track of medicines and equipment, and prevent mixups. That's all dependent on the hospital's computer network.