NHS Patient Records Ransomware Attack

NHS IT Supplier Advanced has suffered a ransomware cyber attack that NHS chiefs fear could have compromised patient records.

While the incident has been contained efforts to prevent the spread of malware to the wider NHS are having an impact on patient care. One NHS Chief Executive told HSJ , who first reported this story, that the situation was pretty desperate and staff had no access to electronic patient records, making the management of some at-risk individuals difficult.

The IT outage also makes it harder to provide records to acute trusts’ emergency departments when mental health patients present there, and it has slowed down discharge processes as providers of housing and supported living require evidence of patients’ histories.

Advanced provides records management services to several NHS trusts and providers of 111 services.

Work is ongoing to identify what, if any, data breaches affecting patients have occurred. Advanced has warned it may take up to four weeks to fully restore access to records.

What are Ransomware Cyber Attacks?

 

Ransomware attacks are when people get into IT systems and disrupt or encrypt them. They then issue demands for payment to restore systems. Given the sensitive nature and enormous volume of data held by the NHS they are at particular risk. However, any organisation could suffer a similar cyber attack and must ensure:

• they have appropriate IT security in place
• they train their staff to recognise suspicious activity like phishing emails
• they have systems to rapidly recognise and address any data breach.

Email is a particular area of risk when it comes to ransomware cyber attacks. You can find out how to manage email in this article.