Massive Ransomware Cybersecurity Attack brings down NHS in U.K.

Early reports suggested it was targeted at the UK’s National Health Service,


The BBC reports that up to 25 NHS organisations and some GP practices have been affected.

Cybersecurity can no longer be treated as "it won't happen to us". Although the attack targetted the U.K. N.H.S. it rapidly became a global attack.  The NHK system in many locales became unusable and emergency services required diversions to hospitals still functioning. For those hospitals . still functioning, many IT services were disrupted including appointments and data in electronic health records.  Critical medical information became unavailable in intensive care units and surgery suites.


For users attempting to log in to their systems, this is what they saw.

Imagine if this is your hospital and you have a patient for whom you must have critical laboratory or images immediately....Do you have a fall back plan to obtain it ?

This occurence evolved due to the lack of updates to the NHS IT systems. Due to cost issues and decreased budget allotments their systems run on out dated and obsolete operating systems.

Users with Windows 10 escaped the attack because Windows 10 uses daily updated protection.

How many health systems still operate with Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Many institutions are reluctant to upgrade their current systems due to incompatibility with newer operating systems.  It may often require a complete replacement of software and/or hardware. The expense will be considerable, but now is essential.

A Kaspersky lab analysis puts the number of infected computers at more than 45,000 as of early Friday afternoon, the vast majority of which are Russian (Ukraine, India, and Taiwan follow). The ransomware’s code makes it pretty clear that it’s taking advantage of an exploit called EternalBlue, published in April by the Shadow Brokers but patched preemptively by Microsoft in March.


For those of you who want to take immediate action, TechCrunch offers these suggestions.

Microsoft offers regular security updates, however Microsoft no longer supports XP, Vista or 7.  Automatic updates will not occur for those products.

Our world has become small and intimate.  Watch this report which graphically depicts the cyber wars that are ongoing.

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