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

[Knocky's Nose]

GPs are resorting to using pen and paper....

Isn't that the same as encryption... Have you seen their writing??

 

[brightn'ove]

Thank you. So I'm not going to get this sort of thing downloading stuff from reputable retailers like ITunes etc? I'd never download or purchase from companies never heard of. What I'm trying to say is, if you're not buying pirated things or visiting dodging sites (like NSC!) you're likely safe enough yes? Or can this just randomly happen even if you're a boring John Lewis customer, Apple branded, 8 bit gamer using technophobe like me?!!

Yes you should be fine. Mac OS and iOS isn't affected by this virus (so far).

 

[TomandJerry]

Colchester General Hospital in Essex is asking patients not to come to its accident and emergency department and is postponing all non-urgent procedures for the rest of the day.

 

[Bigtomfu]

That is the corporate world in a nutshell. Pathetic. Run by clever psychotics hell bent on power. The human race in other words!

Um public sector world is entirely different in levels of ineptness to the majority of the corporate world.

That having been said this entire episode belongs in the Bell Cheeses at work thread.


Sometimes right, sometimes wrong but ALWAYS certain

 

[portlock seagull]

Yes you should be fine. Mac OS and iOS isn't affected by this virus (so far).

Much appreciated, sincerely mean that! Out of interest, anyone got any recommendations for well written books that explain the digital world today to a Luddite like me. I find it interesting but people who know start speaking with such fluency and with assumption it's like talking to some one who thinks your French just because you said Bonjour.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Where have you worked....

With many trusts, I work for a maintainer. For the sake of balance I've met a lot of decent and capable people as well. I just find that it's easy in the NHS to be promoted way above their ability in the interest of saving money. It's the only organisation I've known that employs an IT director who's background is in facilities.

I was called out on Sunday night a few weeks back for a network issue because the wards couldn't access any of their systems after a power cut. When I couldn't find anything wrong and asked if he could console into his servers I took one look at it and said "you might want to switch it on mate!"
I also once had to explain VLANs to a NHS network engineer!

 

[Gwylan]

With many trusts, I work for a maintainer. For the sake of balance I've met a lot of decent and capable people as well. I just find that it's easy in the NHS to be promoted way above their ability in the interest of saving money. It's the only organisation I've known that employs an IT director who's background is in facilities.

A mate of mine is a CIO. He once went into an organisation whose IT was in a mess and found that the previous head of IT had been a coach driver. He's sworn me to confidentiality on it but the whole IT infrastructure was a complete mess ... and this was the private sector.

It's relatively common to have a head of IT who's come from finance.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

It's the only organisation I've known that employs an IT director who's background is in facilities.

It's never ceased to amaze me in how many organisations the Finance Director doubles up as the IT Director !

I also once had to explain VLANs to a NHS network engineer!

Not reserved to the NHS - last year I did some work for an engineering company who wondered why their almost 15 year old network was running very slowly ..... (Only) IP address scheme 192.160.0.0/255.0.0.0

 

[TomandJerry]

"I'm a general med doctor in the emergency acute dept. Phones and PCs down at West Middlesex Hospital."

 

[clippedgull]

GCHQ putting thier foot in it during the ongoing cyber attack they are mean't to be helping to prevent coming into the country!

[tweet]863039131399663618[/tweet]

 

[British Bulldog]

Just got to hope this isn't a prelude to a terrorist act in the country.

 

[dadams2k11]

It's this ransomware: http://myspybot.com/wcry-ransomware/

The virus can be removed and the data recovered.

Yea you're right but only for a ransom.

 

[TomandJerry]

Patient Ron Grimshaw tells the BBC of what happened to him in the past few hours at the Lister Hospital in East Herts. He says:

"I was in the middle of a MRI scan which was suddenly terminated and I was taken out of the machine.

"I was told of the suspected cyber-attack.

 

[portlock seagull]

It's never ceased to amaze me in how many organisations the Finance Director doubles up as the IT Director !



Not reserved to the NHS - last year I did some work for an engineering company who wondered why their almost 15 year old network was running very slowly ..... (Only) IP address scheme 192.160.0.0/255.0.0.0

My experience too. Data, which EVERY company runs on, is so far Down the pecking order in many multi million companies it's actually not funny. And often those in charge are so non digital native (in a digital world) it should be declared unfit corporate governance. I've seen eye watering blunders because those in charge just don't get it and need to be put out to grass and are hanging on for cushy retirement packages whilst being completely incompetent for their inherited departments over time.

'20 years in HR? You're just the person we need to oversea our new SAP implantation...you'll soon get hang of...'

 

[TomandJerry]

Here is a list of the hospitals that we know are affected:

Watford General
Southport
Blackpool Hospitals
Lister Hospital, Stevenage
East & North Hertfordshire
Leicester
Northwick Park, north west London
Lincoln County Hospital
St. Bartholomew and Royal London
Aintree Hospital, Liverpool
Colchester General Hospital
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Broomfield Hospital, Essex
Queen's Hospital, Burton
Royal Stoke University Hospital, Staffordshire
Royal Berkshire Hospital

 

[TomandJerry]

Although this has been reported as a cyber-attack on NHS services in England, there are some services in Scotland that have told of being affected.

The health boards in Dumfries and Galloway and Forth Valley say that they have taken steps to minimise the risk of the problem spreading.

 

[TomandJerry]

"I am a practice manager in St. Helens, Merseyside and this has also affected the whole of St. Helens and Knowsley Trust and Liverpool. We have been advised that it may not be fixed by Monday and we have been told NOT to shut our computers down tonight as this is how they are getting in."

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Just finished reading the latest Lincoln Rhyme novel which is all about the ‘Internet of Things’ and has a plot about someone being able to hack into smart devices which have embedded software linking them to the Internet to enable remote operation and download and receive data to improve the efficiency of the device. By sabotaging the software he can turn the item into a weapon to kill the user. Far fetched, maybe – but you don’t really want someone hacking into your pacemaker and messing about with it.

 

[portlock seagull]

Just finished reading the latest Lincoln Rhyme novel which is all about the ‘Internet of Things’ and has a plot about someone being able to hack into smart devices which have embedded software linking them to the Internet to enable remote operation and download and receive data to improve the efficiency of the device. By sabotaging the software he can turn the item into a weapon to kill the user. Far fetched, maybe – but you don’t really want someone hacking into your pacemaker and messing about with it.

Or Kettle. Which everyone knows the Russians can do, thus bringing a country of tea drinkers to its KNEES!

 

[TomandJerry]

NHS declare major incident after cyber attack on a number of hospital and GP surgeries across England