NHS! Attacked

[Dec66]

Nice to know our strategically important infrastructure is hardened to resist attack. Not.

Strong and stable, obviously.

National Grid next? MoD?

 

[classic33]

Strong and stable, obviously.

National Grid next? MoD?

BT.

 

[Beebo]

The early reports are that this is a US government hacking program that has been stolen!!!!

 

[Dec66]

BT.

Think they're a bit less reliant on ancient software than the public sector. I could be wrong, though.

I think Monday is going to be a bummer for everybody, there's going to be squeaky bums everywhere.

 

[winjim]

Personal information is one thing, what about the computers running machines keeping people alive?

I would hope they're not connected to the network. Our analyser computers certainly aren't.

 

[User33236]

Personal information is one thing, what about the computers running machines keeping people alive?

Most life support equipment is either stand alone or, if it is connected to a network for electronic patient record purposes, can't be affected as the operating systems are read only and do not work in the same way as Windows computers.

Worst case is that data doesn't get transferred to EPR due to the latter being affected instead of the former.

 

[classic33]

Think they're a bit less reliant on ancient software than the public sector. I could be wrong, though.

I think Monday is going to be a bummer for everybody, there's going to be squeaky bums everywhere.

Telefonica were among the early targets. BT have an interest in the company.

 

[Dec66]

The early reports are that this is a US government hacking program that has been stolen!!!!

Not exactly; the CIA had a list of vulnerabilities which could be exploited, which got leaked. Whomever did this may have latched onto that, or may have known already.

 

[Dec66]

Moral; don't run anything mission-critical on Windows. You're asking for trouble if you do.

 

[bozmandb9]

According to somebody on the Lincolnshire Echo website it is the Conservatives to blame.Not sure how he works that one out.

Won't be long before it's blamed on Brexit. I think we've already had somebody blaming the Russians, they seem to be our new favourite arch enemy - wonder if the next James Bond movie will go back to tacking Russian baddies, trying to hijack the noble Western democratic electoral systems!

 

[User33236]

I had a CT scan done within an hour of this happening. I do hope the results aren't lost, as getting to the hospital and having the procedure done was a right old faff.

If the hospital where it was carried out is not one of those currently reporting issues then it will not be an issue. If it was at one reporting issues it is very unlikely that it is lost. The systems have an ability to store tests locally if they are unable to access and transfer data to the central reporting system. Most will automatically transfer the stored tests when the central storage is back online, some older units require manual intervention to clear the queue.

 

[classic33]

Won't be long before it's blamed on Brexit. I think we've already had somebody blaming the Russians, they seem to be our new favourite arch enemy - wonder if the next James Bond movie will go back to tacking Russian baddies, trying to hijack the noble Western democratic electoral systems!

Russia has been hit.

 

[Joffey]

IF Microsoft issued a patch for this 5 months ago it's pretty disgusting that it hasn't been applied to the NHS systems. I wonder why? Maybe because they have no money and the Tories won't give them anymore? They can't cut doctors and nurses so maybe got ride of a few IT staff?

Not seen anything from our strong and stable leader yet...

 

[slowmotion]

IF Microsoft issued a patch for this 5 months ago it's pretty disgusting that it hasn't +--+
+--+
been /8*9-+-applied /to the NHS systems. I wonder why? Maybe because they have no money and the Tories won't give them anymore? They can't cut doctors and nurses so maybe got ride of a few IT staff?

Not seen anything from our strong and stable leader yet...

Were the wicked Tory scum responsible for the damage caused by the hacks in all the other 76 countries too?

 

[Shaun]

It's not unusual for Windows machines to go un-patched for long periods to avoid problems that some of the updates can bring (or to preserve compatibility with proprietary software); the reverse is true too, updating as soon as patches are released can cause problems as well since there is a limit to how much in-house testing can be done at Microsoft, so end-users become unofficial beta testers and the patches are then patched and updated in the background as reports of problems come in and are fixed.

We've seen a big increase in ransomware amongst our client base recently, involving typically two days of cloning, researching if the encryption can be reversed (in a small number of cases it can, but not most), preserving what data remains, then doing a clean-wipe and reinstall with all the associated set-up - per infected machine - and then checking servers and all other machines on the network, and then trying to recover any lost data from backups; it's a lot of work and the results vary, but it costs our clients downtime, disruption and service charges to get back to normal.

I can't imagine how much work there's going to be for those managing the NHS machines that are infected!