After Britain, ‘Ransomware’ Cyber Attack Spreads to Other Nations

Hospitals across England were forced to divert emergency patients on Friday after hospitals were compromised.

This image provided by the Twitter page of @fendifille shows a computer at NHS Greater Preston CCG. (Photo: AP)

After Britain and Spain, a local authority in Sweden said on Friday it had been hit by a cyberattack on Friday with about 70 computers infected.

“We have around 70 computers that have had a dangerous code installed,” said Andreaz Stromgren, the mayor of Timra, about 400 km (250 miles) north of the capital Stockholm.

Even FedEx on Friday said it was experiencing issues with some of its Microsoft Corp Windows systems caused by malware.

A huge cyber attack leveraging hacking tools widely believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency brought disruption to Britain’s health system on Friday and infected dozens of other countries around the world, security researchers said.

The Spanish government had, on the same day, issued a warning, prior to the cyber attack on the NHS, that several companies’ systems had been infected with malignant software called “ransomware”, which essentially seals computers and orders pay-offs to regain access.

‘Ransomware’ Attack

Hospitals and doctors' surgeries in parts of Britain were forced to turn away patients and cancel appointments after they were infected with the “ransomware”, which scrambled data on computers and demanded payments of $300 to $600 to restore access. People in affected areas were being advised to seek medical care only in emergencies.

We are experiencing a major IT disruption and there are delays at all of our hospitals. We have activated our major incident plan to make sure we can maintain the safety and welfare of patients. Ambulances are being diverted to neighbouring hospitals.

Barts Health Group to Reuters

Emergency cases were asked to move away from the affected hospitals, while the public was told to pursue treatment only for critical medical situations.

While Britain’s National Crime Agency announced its cognizance of the situation, it refrained from further comment.

The Department of Health did not comment immediately.

The NHS’s digital team issued a statement on its website saying:

A number of NHS organisations have reported to NHS Digital that they have been affected by a “ransomware” attack. The investigation is at an early stage but we believe the malware variant is Wanna Decryptor. This attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors. At this stage, we do not have any evidence that patient data has been accessed. NHS Digital is working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Health and NHS England to support affected organisations and ensure patient safety is protected. 

British Hospitals Not Deliberately Targeted in Cyber Attack: May

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May said that British hospitals had not been deliberately targeted in a cyber attack on Friday that had encompassed a number of different countries.

This was not targeted at the NHS, it’s an international attack and a number of countries and organisations have been affected.

Theresa May

Key players in Britain’s healthcare sector tweeted:

As verified by The Guardian, a doctor using a Twitter account under the pseudonym B, posted:

The National Health Service’s digital team tweeted a statement:

Eric Vanderburg, an Ohio-based cyber security professional, tweeted, showing the malware:

While Britain's National Health Service has said that hospitals across the country have been hit by a "ransomware" cyber attack, there is no evidence yet to show that patient data has been accessed.

(With inputs from Reuters, AP and The Guardian)