NHS hospitals hit by major cyber attack as ambulances diverted and operations cancelled

Four London hospitals have been hit by the major cyber attack with ambulances diverted and routine appointments cancelled

A major cyber attack on dozens of NHS hospitals across England has forced London medics to cancel routine operations and divert ambulances elsewhere.

The IT system hack "crept" across the country on Friday as the NHS declared a major incident.

Medics were unable to access important patients' records and A&E departments were forced to tell people to stay at home except in an emergency.

Four London hospitals, all under Barts Health NHS Trust in the east of the capital, were hit in Friday's hack.

The trust said they had been targeted with IT problems at The Royal London, St Bartholomew's, Whipps Cross and Newham.

During the attack, members of staff at The Royal London were told not to touch their computers, one employee said.

The NHS' digital team confirmed to the Standard the cyber attack had been carried out for ransom money.

Elsewhere, several A&E departments including Mid Essex CCG and NHS Liverpool told patients not to come to A&E unless it was a "genuine emergency".

Wingate Medical Centre near Liverpool said they cannot treat patients unless it is an "urgent or life-saving matter".

A NHS source told the Standard on Friday the attack “seems to be growing” as more incidents of hospitals across Britain facing IT problems were reported throughout the afternoon.

As of Friday evening it is thought up to 40 NHS organisations were affected.

East and North Hertfordshire NHS postponed "all non-urgent activity" after confirming they experienced a “major IT problem, believed to be caused by a cyber attack".

The trust said it shut down IT systems and telephone lines and asked people in the area not to come to A&E unless it was a life-threatening emergency.

NHS Digital, the branch of the health service dealing with the attack, confirmed that 16 NHS organisations were affected in the ransomware attack.

A screenshot of one of the health trust's website after the IT system went down.
PA

The attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors, they said.

A statement read: "The investigation is at an early stage but we believe the malware variant is Wanna Decryptor.

"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."

Pictures posted on social media showed screens of NHS computers with images demanding payment of 300 US dollars worth of the online currency Bitcoin, saying: "Ooops, your files have been encrypted!"

It adds: "Maybe you are looking for a way to recover your files, but do not waste your time."

A nurse found this file on her desktop following the hack.
PA

It demands payment in three days or the price is doubled, and if none is received in seven days the files will be deleted.

A pharmacist working at a hospital in Essex told the Standard staff were "annoyed" after the internal internet system went down and workers could not access records.

She said: "The intranet is down.

"We can't access pathology and blood results and no emails."

Viruses such as ransomware are normally delivered via emails which trick the recipient into opening attachments and releasing malware onto their system in a technique known as phishing.

Ransomware does not usually aim to steal personal or sensitive information but instead focuses on blocking access and threatening to delete files.

The attack came on the same day as health care professionals mark International Nurses Day.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT