London Hospitals Cancel Operations Following Ransomware Incident Infosecurity Magazine

pDeputy Editor Infosecurity MagazineppLeading London hospitals have been forced to cancel operations and divert emergency patients following a cyberattack on a critical supplierppThe incident has affected Guys and St Thomas Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts and primary care services in South East London according to a statement from NHS England on June 4ppThis follows a ransomware attack on Synnovis a thirdparty provider of pathology services including blood tests swabs and bowel tests for the affected hospitalsppThis has resulted a major impact on delivery of services such as blood transfusions and test resultsppA critical incident has been declared by Guys and St Thomas and Kings College Hospital with The Independent reporting that staff have been told to prioritize urgent and emergency test resultsppNHS England confirmed the ransomware attack on Synnovis took place on Monday June 3ppA spokesperson for NHS England London region said This is having a significant impact on the delivery of services at Guys and St Thomas Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts and primary care services in south east London and we apologise for the inconvenience this is causing to patients and their familiesppEmergency care remains available and patients have been advised to continued accessing services in the normal way including dialling 999 in an emergencyppThe NHS is now working with the UKs National Cyber Security Centre NCSC to understand the full impact of the incidentppNHS England added that NHS providers have tried and tested business continuity plans for instances like this which includes offering mutual aidppThe news follows a spate of ransomware incidents on healthcare organizations this year which have severely impacted patient services and resulted in sensitive data being accessedppThis includes the attack on healthcare payments provider Change Healthcare in the US and Australiabased medical prescriptions provider MediSecureppIn March 2024 Scottish NHS Trust Dumfries and Galloway confirmed it had been hit by a ransomware attack with patient clinical data published online by the attackersppAndrew Whaley Senior Technical Director of Promon noted that the high level of disruption caused by attacking healthcare services potentially even putting patient lives at risk is viewed as a good opportunity to extort money from victimsp