The NHS is working to bring its systems back online after it became the highest-profile victim of a global ransomware attack and faced renewed concern about the strength of its infrastructure, according to an article on The Guardian website.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said teams were “working round the clock” in response to the attack, which resulted in operations being cancelled, ambulances being diverted and documents such as patient records made unavailable in England and Scotland, the article said.
Healthcare facility computers in the U.K. were among tens of thousands hit in almost 100 countries by malware that appeared to be using technology stolen from the U.S. National Security Agency in the U.S. It blocks access to any files on a PC until a ransom is paid.
The attacks exploit a vulnerability in Windows. In December it was reported that nearly all NHS trusts were using an obsolete version of Windows for which Microsoft had stopped providing security updates in April 2014.
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