This caused service disruptions and hindered communication with GP services across six London boroughs.
The Synnovis pathology reporting system at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust fell victim to a ransomware attack. This caused service disruptions and hindered communication with GP services across six London boroughs.
Urgent and emergency services were not impacted by the incident, and most outpatient services remained unaffected. However, some operations and procedures that depend heavily on pathology services were postponed.
In a statement released the day after the attack, Synnovis reported that a taskforce of IT experts from both Synnovis and the NHS was working to thoroughly assess the impact of the incident and to take the necessary actions.
Synnovis CEO Mark Dollar stated that the incident has been reported to law enforcement and the Information Commissioner. Synnovis is collaborating with the National Cyber Security Centre and the Cyber Operations Team to investigate the incident.
“We take cybersecurity very seriously at Synnovis and have invested heavily in ensuring our IT arrangements are as safe as they possibly can be,” Mr Dollar said.
Mr Martin told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There are quite a few of these criminal groups operating freely within Russia. They give themselves high-profile names and have websites on the so-called dark web. This particular group has a history of attacking various organizations worldwide for about two years.
“They've done automotive companies, they've attacked the Big Issue here in the UK, they've attacked Australian courts. They're simply looking for money.”
The group known as Qilin, which has previously hacked car manufacturers and the Big Issue, is believed to be responsible for this attack. Their motivation seems to be ransom payment rather than political objectives.
Qilin, also known as Agenda, is a Russian-speaking ransomware gang that allows hackers to use its tools in exchange for a share of the proceeds.
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