Hackers publish data stolen in NHS hospital attack

UK health authorities said that sensitive data from a ransomware attack that led to major disruption at London hospitals has been published online on Friday.

The cyberattack earlier this month on service supplier Synnovis particularly hit blood transfusions, and hundreds of appointments and operations are still being cancelled.

The attack affected some of the UK’s biggest hospitals – King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ in the centre of the British capital.

“NHS England has been made aware that the cybercriminal group published data last night, which they claim belongs to Synnovis and was stolen as part of this attack,” said the body that runs the state-run National Health Service (NHS) in England.

According to the BBC, the Russian cybercriminal group Qilin shared almost 400 gigabytes of data – including patient names, dates of birth, NHS numbers, and blood test descriptions – on their darknet site and Telegram channel.

Synnovis, which conducts pathology tests on blood samples, primarily in southeast London, was the victim of a cyberattack on June 3.

“We understand that people may be concerned by this and we are continuing to work with Synnovis, the National Cyber Security Centre and other partners to determine the content of the published files as quickly as possible,” NHS England said.

AFP

All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.

Contact: [email protected]