ALBAWABA - After being targeted by a cyber-attack that prompted officials to declare as a "critical incident," major London hospitals who in partnership with Synnovis, a supplier of pathology services, were forced to cancel procedures and redirect emergency patients elsewhere.
Affected hospitals include King's College Hospital, Guy's and St. Thomas', which includes the Evelina London Children's Hospital and the Royal Brompton, as well as primary care services.
The NHS says that emergency treatment is still accessible, but certain operations have been canceled or diverted to other NHS providers while the hospitals attempt to determine which procedures can be done in a safe manner, as reported by BBC.
The hackers on Monday installed a ransomare on Synnovis's IT system, a malicious software which locks down computers and demands money to unlock them, as reported by Guardian, with Mark Dollar, Synnovis’s CEO stating that “this has affected all Synnovis IT systems, resulting in interruptions to many of our pathology services. This is a harsh reminder that this sort of attack can happen to anyone at any time.”
A representative from Synnovis asserted that the company has brought in a taskforce of IT specialists to correctly investigate the damage, the NHS apologized for the disruption and said that it was collaborating with the National Cyber Security Centre to evaluate the result of the attack.
“The incident is being reported to law enforcement and the Information Commissioner, and we are working with the National Cyber Security Centre and the Cyber Operations Team,” the spokesperson added.
