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NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 3:59 pm
by Garth
NHS services across England have been hit by IT failure, believed to be caused by a large-scale cyber-attack.

Trusts and hospitals in London, Blackburn, Nottingham, Cumbria and Hertfordshire have been affected.

GPs are resorting to using pen and paper, according to newspaper the Blackpool Gazette, and phone and IT systems have been shut down.

NHS England says they are aware of the issue and are looking into it.

Among those affected is the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust which says it is experiencing problems with computers and phone systems.

It has postponed all non-urgent activity today and is asking people not to come to A&E at the the Lister Hospital in Stevenage.

IT specialists are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible, a statement from the Trust says.

Also affected is Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust which says it has shut down all of its IT systems following a 'secure system attack'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39899646

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:06 pm
by Lagamorph
Of all the people to target for a Cyber Attack, why the NHS?
That goes beyond just being dickish.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:08 pm
by Garth
This is apparently what they're seeing:
Image

Telefonica/O2, Vodafone, Santander and others may have been hit too:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... -outbreak/
https://www.euroweeklynews.com/3.0.15/n ... -to-ransom

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:11 pm
by Hexx
I'm not up on the times - but that is RansomWare right?

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:23 pm
by Errkal
yeah it is.

One of our customers just called to let us know they have decided to isolate themselves and they have disconnected all their internet connections.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:26 pm
by Hexx
Errkal wrote:yeah it is.

One of our customers just called to let us know they have decided to isolate themselves and they have disconnected all their internet connections.


I'm on wireless home - so they can't get to me right? And I shouldn't plug in the Either Net cable...right?

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:28 pm
by satriales
I had to go to hospital today but was out at 1pm so must've just missed this.
I suspect it is just your usual ransomware rather than a specific targeted attack on the NHS.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:28 pm
by Jam-Master Jay
You'd have to be one hell of a massive banana split to target hospitals with this shite.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:35 pm
by Lex-Man
They just hit ip addresses until they find a vulnerable target.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:38 pm
by Errkal
lex-man wrote:They just hit ip addresses until they find a vulnerable target.


The NHS sites inside its own network isolated from the Internet, they connect via a number of very restricted gateways, some trusts have internet gateways but most dont, so this is more targetted than that.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:45 pm
by Moggy
Lagamorph wrote:Of all the people to target for a Cyber Attack, why the NHS?
That goes beyond just being dickish.


Jam-Master Jay wrote:You'd have to be one hell of a massive banana split to target hospitals with this shite.


This.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:52 pm
by Lex-Man
Errkal wrote:
lex-man wrote:They just hit ip addresses until they find a vulnerable target.


The NHS sites inside its own network isolated from the Internet, they connect via a number of very restricted gateways, some trusts have internet gateways but most dont, so this is more targetted than that.


Do you work in it for the NHS because that wasn't my experience?

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:03 pm
by Lagamorph
“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.

“NHS Digital is working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Health and NHS England to support affected organisations and to recommend appropriate mitigations.

“This attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors.

“Our focus is on supporting organisations to manage the incident swiftly and decisively, but we will continue to communicate with NHS colleagues and will share more information as it becomes available.”

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:05 pm
by Errkal
lex-man wrote:
Errkal wrote:
lex-man wrote:They just hit ip addresses until they find a vulnerable target.


The NHS sites inside its own network isolated from the Internet, they connect via a number of very restricted gateways, some trusts have internet gateways but most dont, so this is more targetted than that.


Do you work in it for the NHS because that wasn't my experience?


Yup, IT for like 11 years or so.

All the the organisations "main" internet connections are on N3 which is an isolated network by BT / Virgin with its own backbone etc. that has gateways out to the web making getting into an organisation difficult.

Some organisations however do run their own gateways for services so there is an entry there if it is done badly, usually those connections just to a DMZ and only specific stuff can pass not "general" internet.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:11 pm
by Dowbocop
I think there was an uptick in phishing attempts via the NHS national email system. I've certainly had emails espousing vigilance from at least one of the organisations I work for.

Thoughts and prayers with our brave network admins at this difficult time xx

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:11 pm
by Lex-Man
Errkal wrote:
lex-man wrote:
Errkal wrote:
lex-man wrote:They just hit ip addresses until they find a vulnerable target.


The NHS sites inside its own network isolated from the Internet, they connect via a number of very restricted gateways, some trusts have internet gateways but most dont, so this is more targetted than that.


Do you work in it for the NHS because that wasn't my experience?


Yup, IT for like 11 years or so.


Where I worked two and a half years ago all of our front facing machines had internet access. It was all replaced by visualised desktops running off servers but still very much hooked up to the internet.

The guardian article mentions that it the mail sever was the first place to get hit.


In a message to a Guardian reporter, one NHS IT worker said: “At approximately 12.30pm we experienced a problem with our email servers crashing. Following this a lot of our clinical systems and patient systems were reported to have gone down.


They also mention it wasn't an attack targeting the NHS specifically.

“This attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors.


https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... ber-attack

So I still stand by my comment.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:15 pm
by Denster
our computers were down for a while. Couldn't browse on here till 9am.

Twats!

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:52 pm
by satriales
Denster wrote:our computers were down for a while. Couldn't browse on here till 9am.

Twats!

You work for the NHS? :?

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:53 pm
by Denster
For the last 20 yrs.

Re: NHS England hit by cyber attack, phone and IT systems down

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:54 pm
by Meep
lex-man wrote:
Errkal wrote:
lex-man wrote:They just hit ip addresses until they find a vulnerable target.


The NHS sites inside its own network isolated from the Internet, they connect via a number of very restricted gateways, some trusts have internet gateways but most dont, so this is more targetted than that.


Do you work in it for the NHS because that wasn't my experience?

Definitely not. I would not work for starters as we need to use the services of outside contractors through the internet when ever we need to request anything.