Cyber Attack Disrupts Major London Hospitals

Major NHS hospitals in London, including Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital, have been hit by a significant cyber-attack. This ransomware attack has severely disrupted essential services, such as blood tests and transfusions, by targeting Synnovis, the outsourced lab services provider. The attack has forced hospitals to revert to paper-based communication, causing major bottlenecks and limiting lab functionality to only the most urgent cases.

This attack is part of a broader trend of increasing ransomware incidents affecting healthcare services, which are often underfunded in IT infrastructure. Ransomware gangs exploit these vulnerabilities, locking up systems and demanding payment to restore access. The Synlab group, Synnovis’s parent company, has faced three such attacks in the past year, with significant data breaches in its French and Italian branches.

Healthcare providers are particularly vulnerable due to the sensitive nature of patient data and the critical need to maintain uninterrupted services. However, there is growing pressure from UK security services to prevent organizations from paying ransoms. The National Cyber Security Centre has reinforced this policy, emphasizing that no payments should be made to cyber criminals.

This attack underscores the urgent need for improved cybersecurity measures in the healthcare sector to protect against future disruptions and safeguard sensitive patient data.

Source: The Guardian

To mitigate potential threats, it is important to implement additional cybersecurity measures with the help of a trusted partner like INFRA www.infrascan.net, or you can try yourself using check.website.