NHS hospitals across England hit by large-scale cyber-attack

deletebeepbeepbeep · May 13, 2017

Disgraceful that due to Tory penny pinching some people will not be receiving life saving treatment today. Hunt must fall for this, at the very least. And I hope his incompetence means he's voted out in June but not holding my breath.

Deleted member 22389 · May 13, 2017

Herr Tubthumper said:
Agree. I just hope Jeremy Hunt's hanging doesn't clash with my holiday; I'd like to watch.

Why do you even say things like this?

Neville's Breakfast · May 13, 2017

Herr Tubthumper said:
Government is responsible and accountable for this.

American blame culture. None of us actually know what went wrong. Sometimes bad things happen and they are nobody's fault.

Herr Tubthumper · May 13, 2017

Neville's Breakfast said:
American blame culture. None of us actually know what went wrong. Sometimes bad things happen and they are nobody's fault.

Not at all. It's Jeremy Hunt's department. He's accountable.

Deleted member 22389 · May 13, 2017

Herr Tubthumper said:
Not at all. It's Jeremy Hunt's department. He's accountable.

I see Nissan has now suffered along with possibly hundreds of thousands of other businesses across the world which we are not hearing about, shall we sack every single MD or just Hunt?

Gwylan · May 13, 2017

Neville's Breakfast said:
American blame culture. None of us actually know what went wrong. Sometimes bad things happen and they are nobody's fault.

Nicked this off a friend of mine but it's a real good summary of why this is no accident.

Up until 2010 the NHS had a single contract with Microsoft to cover all their software, servers, Office, everything. Then Andrew Lansley and the Tory/Lib Dem government released a Whitepaper called Liberating the NHS.
It said it was "NHS services will increasingly be empowered to be the customers of a more plural system of IT and other suppliers".
Which sounds OK at first glance. But was in fact disguising the fact that they cut the budget for the Microsoft agreement, and told local authorities to figure it out themselves.
Now, I'm not a huge fan of Windows. But the deal they struck with them in 2004 was amazingly good value. Offering full licensing for everything including support for 900,000 NHS staff at a cost of around £72 per head.
There's 151 local authorities, each expected to save money by replacing that deal with something they negotiated individually. It was an insane plan, and obviously doomed. Yet the Government claimed they were "saving £500,000,000".
So that's why the whole of the NHS lacks and central IT policy, budget, or capability for dealing with even the most basic "cyber-threat". It could probably be taken down by a cleaner unplugging a server to plug a vacuum cleaner in.

PILTDOWN MAN · May 13, 2017

Herr Tubthumper said:
Not at all. It's Jeremy Hunt's department. He's accountable.

Sauerkraut

deletebeepbeepbeep · May 13, 2017

bashlsdir said:
I see Nissan has now suffered along with possibly hundreds of thousands of other businesses across the world which we are not hearing about, shall we sack every single MD or just Hunt?

The welsh health service hasn't been effected because they invested in their IT systems. This is all to do with Tory penny pinching under Cameron and Hunt.

portlock seagull · May 13, 2017

Silk said:
I wouldn't say that.

Sent from my F5121 using Tapatalk

Fool.

Herr Tubthumper · May 13, 2017

bashlsdir said:
I see Nissan has now suffered along with possibly hundreds of thousands of other businesses across the world which we are not hearing about, shall we sack every single MD or just Hunt?

I would expect all MDs looking after significant personal information who were running old versions of Windows and/or didn't implement the patch Microsoft released in March to counter this threat to be considering their future. Gross incompetence.

Buzzer · May 13, 2017

Herr Tubthumper said:
I would expect all MDs looking after significant personal information who were running old versions of Windows and/or didn't implement the patch Microsoft released in March to counter this threat to be considering their future. Gross incompetence.

I completely agree with you here except that I think the buck ultimately stops with the head of IT rather than the MD. It's specifically an IT issue, all major companies have a head of IT/IT director and protection and control of the computer network must be their primary responsibility.

I really don't know how the people responsible for this attack can live with themselves though. Lives are at risk. I hope that when they meet their make that there's a special level of hell waiting just for them.

Herr Tubthumper · May 13, 2017

Buzzer said:
I completely agree with you here except that I think the buck ultimately stops with the head of IT rather than the MD. It's specifically an IT issue, all major companies have a head of IT/IT director and protection and control of the computer network must be their primary responsibility.

I really don't know how the people responsible for this attack can live with themselves though. Lives are at risk. I hope that when they meet their make that there's a special level of hell waiting just for them.

Fair point. I used the term MD because bashlsdir did, should have put it in quotes. If my understanding of this issue is correct then it seems that upgrades and patches would have remedied it. I think we're in broad agreement but if this was simply overlooked then the head of IT is responsible. If this security gap was identified but not implemented due to budgetary reasons then the blame lies elsewhere; therefore if it's the NHS then it's the government who made the cut.

I'm no expert but I have been involved in some data security stuff myself; but as a stakeholder. I work with a lot of very sensitive data and only a few weeks ago we were discussing the complete shut down of a database, at great expense, due to a security risk we identified. It was going to cost a lot, but then that's the price you pay if you work with people's sensitive data. It's your responsibility, part of the job, and one where you can't cut corners imho.

I don't have an issue with hackers per se, but messing around with systems like the NHS' is cowardly, unfair and puts innocent lives at direct risk. Go and **** up Trump's Twitter account, that'll be more fun and beneficial and the world would crowdfund your ransom.

Buzzer · May 13, 2017

Herr Tubthumper said:
Fair point. I used the term MD because bashlsdir did, should have put it in quotes. If my understanding of this issue is correct then it seems that upgrades and patches would have remedied it. I think we're in broad agreement but if this was simply overlooked then the head of IT is responsible. If this security gap was identified but not implemented due to budgetary reasons then the blame lies elsewhere; therefore if it's the NHS then it's the government who made the cut.

I'm no expert but I have been involved in some data security stuff myself; but as a stakeholder. I work with a lot of very sensitive data and only a few weeks ago we were discussing the complete shut down of a database, at great expense, due to a security risk we identified. It was going to cost a lot, but then that's the price you pay if you work with people's sensitive data. It's your responsibility, part of the job, and one where you can't cut corners imho.

I don't have an issue with hackers per se, but messing around with systems like the NHS' is cowardly, unfair and puts innocent lives at direct risk. Go and **** up Trump's Twitter account, that'll be more fun and beneficial and the world would crowdfund your ransom.

Post of the year. Yep, no issue with hackers going after political figures or agencies, it's the nature of the beast. We're all stakeholders with the NHS though and it puts us all at risk.

Ernest · May 13, 2017

24 hours later no sign of any statement by the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt who bears ultimate responsibility for the NHS and it's data

#strongandstable

#huntandmaythecoalitionofchaos

beorhthelm · May 13, 2017

deletebeepbeepbeep said:
The welsh health service hasn't been effected because they invested in their IT systems. This is all to do with Tory penny pinching under Cameron and Hunt.

nor were 110 other English trusts apparently. did they got more money for IT then? or are making crass political point out of a failure of NHS administrators (both IT and management senses)?

Triggaaar · May 13, 2017

portlock seagull said:
Is their anything you can do to prevent?

Yes and it's very easy. Just keep a backup of your files on an external drive/usb stick etc. What happens to all your files if you had a hard disk crash? You need a backup regardless of these viruses.

Triggaaar · May 13, 2017

Dick Head said:
Ditch Trident and we could afford to upgrade the NHS from Windows XP. Or use Linux.

Yeah, but would the NHS be able to cope with the inevitable war?

Thunder Bolt · May 13, 2017

The UK accidental hero, who stopped the ransom virus. This also contains a map showing all the places in the world this virus hit.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39907049

Brighton Mod · May 13, 2017

beorhthelm said:
nor were 110 other English trusts apparently. did they got more money for IT then? or are making crass political point out of a failure of NHS administrators (both IT and management senses)?

A very poigniant observation, how much are those who run the NHS paid, they are on huge salaries to run a large torpid organsiation, for some systems to have no security whatsoever as we are now hearing is criminal. Are we really expecting the health secretary to delgate where all monies are spent within the NHS. It employs a million people and is indeed an extremely crass point to make by some, we'll be blaming him for lack of parking spaces or the shortage of coffee in the machines next. This is a huge management failure and quite frankly a disgrace, those who manage the NHS at all eschelons concerning IT should be ashamed!!

Shropshire Seagull · May 13, 2017

I came across this same ransomware about 2 years ago while I was working for a medium sized IT outsourcing consultancy - the client was a nationwide hotel chain based in Scotland - when they came to us to help them resolve, we established the root cause was a failure to maintain up to date AV - we rebuilt and restored, but the MD was so concerned for business continuity he was almost happy o pay the ransom - until he realised that if he did, they keep coming back for more.

Anyone else pick up on the required currency of the ransom = Bitcoins ?? Is that because they can easily be chased without trace?

I'm consulting for HMRC at the moment - be interesting to see if we get hit with this in the coming days / weeks / months.

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NHS hospitals across England hit by large-scale cyber-attack

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