London Hospitals in Disarray After Ransomware Attack
Major hospitals in London are still reeling from a cyber-attack that crippled pathology services, led to surgery cancellations, and affected patient care. As a result of a hack on June 3rd, hospitals associated with Synnovis, a provider of pathology services, disrupted lab services at Guy’s, St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital, including the Royal Brompton and Evelina London Children’s Hospital, as well as primary care services across south-east London. As well as this, general practitioner services are affected across Bexley, Greenwich, Lewisham, Bromley, Southwark and Lambeth boroughs.
It is preliminary believed that the case could be a ransomware attack. This is whereby perpetrators encrypt essential systems and demand a ransom before decrypting them. The current situation shows that hackers have crashed the system so it cannot function properly. This has seriously interfered with access to crucial medical records such as blood test results, tissue analysis required for diagnosis, or treatment planning.
These affected hospitals have declared “critical incident” status putting emergency cases at the top of the list. Some non-emergency operations have been put off while others are diverted to other sites where pathology services function.
The Synnovis cyber-attack signals ever-increasing vulnerabilities for healthcare providers to cyber-attacks. Although no culprits have been identified yet, it is believed by some cybersecurity experts that it could possibly be associated with a Russian hacker group called ‘Quilin’. This group is suspected of operating from the dark web and freely within Russia.
Recovery efforts are underway, with Synnovis working diligently to restore their systems. The hospitals said they already have launched a cyber incident response team, and that staff were working around the clock to minimise disruption. However, the full impact of the attack is still unfolding. A government spokesperson said patient safety was its priority and support were provided to the healthcare organization. The NHS urges patience as they attempt to restore normal operations and reschedule impacted procedures.
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