British health service NHS suffers from ransomware attack

The threatens The threat of ransomware, the theft or encryption of data for extortion purposes, is becoming increasingly apparent. In the UK, local authorities, water companies and a Ministry of Defence supplier have been attacked by criminal gangs in recent years. Last year, the British Library’s website and other online services went down as a result of a cyberattack; the outage has still not been resolved. On June 3, ransomware hit the National Health Service (NHS).

The attack was attributed to Qilin, a Russian criminal group; the British government appears to have retaliated by shutting down the gang’s darknet site. Qilin’s attack targeted the IT Systems belonging to Synnovis, a healthcare company that performs around 100,000 blood tests a day, rendering its data unusable. Several hospital trusts – including two London teaching hospitals, Guy’s and St Thomas’, and King’s College Hospital – were affected by the attack. Primary care providers in six London boroughs were also affected.