Large-scale cyber attack on hospitals in England

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

Message asking for 300 dollars. Can't call 'em greedy 

$300? Obviously someone from the poker forum.

If they're in this country should be tried for murder. If abroad a job for the SAS.

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.

Seems to be confusion as to whether it's 300 Bitcoin (about $430,000) or 300 dollars worth of Bitcoin.

Current reports suggest the latter.

'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 ?!

It does sound like it was a dodgy email. Targeting hospitals is probably as low as you caould go but apparently, organisations other than the NHS have been attacked.

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.)

we may be back to horses and carts before we realise

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.

40+ NHS trusts using Windows XP software.

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.

Those pesky cybermen again. Where's the doctor?

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.
----------------

Excellent observation, and comment.

Heard a Podcast on this and it's virtually impossible to trace, even for Governments, usually paying up is the only option if the information is important enough (and in this case it is). All they can do is tighten the loophole but another will be found.

I think this was the episode: http://www.radiolab.org/story/darkode/

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.

Large companies and organistaions are paying millions in ransoms every day,

Wow, that surprises me. Do we have half a dozen or so examples?  I thought this kind of attack had now become comparatively ineffective against the big boys.

Cheers if you have some links.

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

alun2005


The research showed almost half (44%) of UK businesses have been infected by ransomware in the last 24 months. Almost a third (27%) of those more than once - with the most unlucky UK organisation targeted as much as five times. Those who have been targeted by ransomware say that a third (33%) of their employees were affected by the infection, along with an estimated 31% of the organisation’s customers.
Nearly two thirds of UK businesses hit by ransomware attacks have paid up to cyber criminals.
However, only 45 per cent of those who were infected got their data back, meaning that one in five companies paid up but never regained access to their files.

Source: Trendmicro

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.

Thanks ooO

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.

Its wildly known that a large chunk of companies consider security a burden to the business and not a critical cimponent to their IT unfrastructure. This happens on a daily basis. Just because it's the nhs it now hits the news. Ransomware will evolve, users will contunue to click on whatever they like, IF will continue to be stretched and under invested in

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.

$300 ? Why don't they pay it and move on.....something not right here !

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.

False Flag - Nap

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

More government controls on internet - NB

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.

I blame the Russians btw.

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

The NHS should have renewed their norton. cheap B^sturds

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

scotland also effected

windows 10 ?

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

It is all the YANKS fault - surprise, surprise -

Because their  NSA  failed to stop, or account for, a ROGUE releasing THEIR own HACKING CODES to the rest of the internet HACKERS.

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...

it will have precisely zero impact on the running of the hospitals.

jeremy hunt gone missing in action

Americans are a million miles ahead of us and their systems still get hacked.
Hackers would have got in regardless. (Win XP)

The main problem is email and firewalls.

Forumites running XP or other unsupported versions can get the patch from Microsoft:

http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4012598

The site is very slow.

how did so many computers become compromised

staff on facebook, in their free time ?

STRONG AND STABLE


https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/26/uk-government-pcs-open-to-hackers-as-paid-windows-xp-support-ends

The Government Digital Service will not extend its £5.5m deal with Microsoft to extend support for Windows XP, leaving government computers that still run on the obsolete operating system at risk from hackers.

The service said ending the support meant “weaknesses that are found in unsupported products will remain unpatched and will be exploitable by relatively low-skilled attackers”.

Though this just made me laugh

https://twitter.com/the_awakend/status/863343275675090944

What about this for coincidence
On Wednesday I work for a small firm and we decided to scrap our 3rd party SCREENING email service
Basically because they upped their charges from £5 to £100 a MONTH

I noted in the days before a lot of erroneouse FedEx messages saying you had a package
I resisted opening the email

I now notice FedEx is one of the companies compromised
wouldn't SURPISE ME IF THIS is the culprit for this worldwide virus
Hospitals would normally expect to receive packages

Be plenty of well paid overtime for IT staff this weekend .

Although holding individuals and corps hostage through these malevolent acts look about as low as you can go its only the end result of the 'development' of the human. Its so endemic in society that you cant get rid of opportunism, from footballers cheating refs to insurance companies finding ways to not pay out claims or a myriad of corporate/political double faced wrongness in between.

These hackers certainly arnt the first to ride the fook out of the NHS, private companies and pharmas do it daily and to much greater extent.

Suggestion today that a weakness in the operating system that was being used by the CIA was identified within the Wikileaks dump in recent years,reportedly up to 70 countries have been effected. Either an attempt to shift blame or a genuine blood on their hands responsibility due to Wikileaks behaviour,choose your victim according to your politics.

No mention yet from the media ...of Putin or Trump "allegedly" being involved ..

i have had no virus protection ever. it's a con. a good firewall and not going to weird sites is a must. I always backup. once a week. If i work in a vital document I backup to a usb dongle.
the NHS are clicking on advert pop ups? how the Fk? it should all be hospital business.????

surely a closed system. everyone should have a copy of their own files. If the doctors don't want you to view your own files? a pin release on it.
backups on HD and other media.

Why are CT scanners linked to the internet? this is baffling BS.

you could have your records on a dongle/thumb drive on your keys or dogtag.

All of this panic is leading up to subdermal implants - to scan the patient like a pet.
they have it now for soldiers going into combat in teh USA.
the Germans had a tattoo given during ww2 -  bloodtype.

FS it's not like the person operating the scanner is surfing hot-asian-trojans.com.

It's one of the nasty ones that once it gets on a network once it'll infect everything it sees, then they'll infect everything they see, and so on down the line.

Nobody has to do anything as it uses a weakness in a standard network thingy. Of course the CS scanner controller is likely to be on a network, otherwise they'd be like transferring data via floppies or USB dongles all day.

And how is having totally free good virus protection a con??

the guys making the anti virus software used to be on the other side of the fence.
they leave  holes in the OS deliberately. To allow security services in.
the software for this attack was taken from the security services. It's all a joke.

Is there a safe operating system - no. They won't allow it.

It's in their own interest to make updates and patches. It's a needful thing. that needs to be petted and massaged to work right.

Is there a computer out there that works without a fist to the screen.

All the chaos and they've only made $26,000 from it

http://gizmodo.com/hackers-behind-massive-ransomware-have-made-an-embarras-1...

this is turning into a thing - next step is they curtail some freedom we have. or give us chip implants. It's leading somewhere. it's a minor blip. If your files are backed up - you go to a disc or some other media. this should not be an issue.

Ovalman.    12 May 17 20:18 
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 queried a missing appointment letter with my hospital lately. The person I spoke to confirmed they had been having a lot of issues lately, because they now outsource the sending of appointment letters !!!

The Leopard    12 May 17 22:09 
May desperate to declare it an International attack....."we're not at fault"

That's not what Jeremy Hunt states .......oh ,hang on....Hunt hasn't said a dicky bird, he's mightily conspicuous by his absence!!!!

Where is he - what's the story behind his ' show ' ?

Perhaps ( we can hope), he's been sacrificed by May, and has been sacked

* ' no show '

Microsoft have stated, that in light of these recent cyberattacks. All users of non supported Windows XP , will be sent the latest  security update free of charge.

where have you seen this Facts?

Have they also said they will therefore now do the same for new processors using anything other than win10?

If they will then Ill swap back to the kabylake I have in a box doing nowt since I replaced it with a lesser Skylake 6th gen processor instead of bending to their spying will and moving to win10

A cringeworthy response from Amber Rudd (scroll down a bit), these people are in charge.

http://news.sky.com/story/europol-warns-of-further-cyberattacks-on-monday-mo...