Large-scale cyber attack on hospitals in England

Big news. The world is quickly going down the pan.

$300? Obviously someone from the poker forum.

My brother has his prescription delivered to the Chemist. Went to collect and it wasn't there. Someone had hacked the doctors records and had them sent to a Chemist 200 miles away where they were collected.

'BREAKING NEWS: NHS is hit by large-scale cyber attack as computer systems and phones in hospitals across England go down as hackers demand £415,000 not to wipe files, and criminals have taken control of computers.The pop up contains a countdown clock with a deadline of next Friday'

Did someone click on a dodgy email ? 

Seriously, why would you attack a hospital, what is wrong with people ?!

NHS still using Windows XP.  Air Traffic Control systems still using Windows 3.  (Although these organisations, if they pay, can still get security updates from Microsoft for these old versions.)

If GCHQ arnt all over this and catch whoever are doing it then it totally undermines both them and snoopers charter since terrorists would just do similar to evade em.

I would hope that our security services find who did this. I also hope that nobody has been harmed by this but if anybody has that whoever is responsible faces the most serious charges possible.

dustybin 12 May 17 17:05 

If GCHQ arnt all over this and catch whoever are doing it then it totally undermines both them and snoopers charter since terrorists would just do similar to evade em.
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Excellent observation, and comment.

The software used to attack was developed by the NSA which was stolen and placed online for all to use and all to defend against.  The hackers are always one step ahead, and there'll only be an escalation of attacks in the future.  Large companies and organistaions are paying millions in ransoms every day, it wasn't just the NHS today that was affected, but because it was it made the headlines.  It wouldn't be a surprise to find that many critical infrastructure systems are being attacked all the time that aren't reported in the media.  Seems to me digital currencies are an ideal method to launder money and have been designed for that purpose as it becomes more difficult to use traditional methods.

Correct spelling of "your" in the ransom message... exonerates many on Chit-Chat and most from Football forum from suspicion.

what was wrong with paper.
power stations linked to internet?
do we need all this computer stuff?

microsoft should have their heads handed to them. Not keeping up with updates for their products. Billions ahead. and not looking back.

what was wrong with paper.

My wife has a lump in her leg and it's growing. Letter was sent in January, not received, letter sent in March, not received last letter was sent last Month, it was received as it was sent registered post but she's still waiting on a date for a scan.

A simple Email sent at the end of January would have cured the whole problem.

Why in this day and age a Doctor has to send a letter is beyond me. There's a lot of red tape that's costing billions, I reckon the NHS still use letters to keep the Royal Mail in business.

I work for a leccy company, the most important part of the business is the electricity network, this is not connected to the internet, surprised the NHS dont have an internal system like this or at least a back up version.

All of the network is connected to other computers on its own system without no outside connections.

Is there not a case for suing Microsoft for failing to ensure its products meet security standards ? The IT world seems to regards itself as above normal product conformity and there may come a time in the future when Microsoft gets sued for the IT equivalent of PPI by millions of users,they have to stop considering themselves so aloof from the law.

May desperate to declare it an International attack....."we're not at fault"

I would think the opposite treetop, microsoft cannot protect you from the outside its just an operating system, the devil in me thinks microsoft are trying to venture into cybersecurity.

Looks like it from this :
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/12/global-cyber-attack-ransomware-nsa-uk-nhs

Can't wait for them to hack into the general election and give UKIP a 500 seat landslide majority

Microsoft already have a security product..plus they released a patch for the vulnerability.

Actually, regarding Microsoft, they have said anyone who patched the most recent security update wouldn't have been susceptible to this attack.
The reason OS was susceptible therefore was down to corporate decisions of no longer providing adequate security cover.
Now in the case of XP there might be an argument for them to suggest they were no longer responsible to do so since the promoted coverage date has lapsed...but since their decision to pull the security updates for the newest technology that use kabylake processors and not using Windows 10 OS (the one that uses telemetry a la Google to sell your data) then those machines have arbitrarily been placed in danger while still within the agreed servicing period for the purchased software (in win 7 case it's still got 3 years to go)
Ergo, anyone who purchased Windows 7 and installed it onto a new machine in the belief they would be covered for security but then get attacked because the adequate security patch was denied them purely for reasons of forcing further purchase of a product that has spying capabilities and low market share may have an interesting question to ask...