NHS Hospitals hit by massive cyber attack

[user1491572121]

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/12/hospitals-across-england-hit-by-large-scale-cyber-attack?CMP=fb_gu

I was in the District nurse office this afternoon all of our patients are now allocated on a computer system. No work was able to be allocated for tomorrow, time to go back to good old pen and paper I reckon. Systems are down for hours most weeks in my trust!

Thanks bear. Suppose it was only a matter of time

What are you thinking anon?

Surely they back up all their data? I work in a school and we back up all our data, so a hospital must?

Our local hospital is also effected, sending patients home. Can't access test results etc

The NHS trust I work for (Scotland) has also been attacked but I haven't seen this in the news yet.

There are paper records and you can go manually pull them out the records room - the one at the hospital where I worked was a huge room with floor to ceiling compressible shelving units where you spin a wheel to open up a corridor in the shelves. BUT you need the computer to tell you where to locate the relevant file.

Official advice if your local hospitals are affected and you're ill is:

1. Do not go to A&E
2. Call 111 for medical advice
3. If your emergency is life threatening, ring 999

Official advice if your local hospitals are affected and you're ill is:

1. Do not go to A&E
2. Call 111 for medical advice
3. If your emergency is life threatening, ring 999

Don't panic. Check your local news services. In some areas the advice will be to avoid affected hospitals. In others, that would be far too long a journey for safety.

Only use A&E for emergencies. But if it is an emergency you will be seen, and you will be treated. Staff are working very hard to make sure of it. Managers have been pulling together contingency plans. Consultants have been stress testing those plans with everything from "what about the phone and bleep system", to how to still access emergency results.

This is an irresponsible and dangerous attack by fucking scum. But for the true emergencies, we will cope. It is what we do. Just, please....don't take the piss. Because this is seriously stretched.

too much reliance on machines again.

wtf was wrong with paper filing systems where your records were in your hospital/GP? Now they can be spread around for all the world to see.

I hate computer stuff (she says, typing on a computer! bring back good old fashioned typewriters!), they should have known NO information is safe online. NONE.

The NHS needs to stop putting all its eggs in one basket and not rely on connected computers. And staff need to act responsibly and not open dodgy attachments. And not take pictures of their computer screens as there may be patient identifiable information in them.

I wonder whether it was maybe an email too. Or as someone else suggested, a password reset.

It's awful. Had so much I could have been getting on with this salvo.

Poor NHS can't get it bloody right. People moaning that systems should be connected to ensure we track child neglect etc etc. Now people are moaning they shouldn't be because of things like this.
A hacking and security professor from Sheffield hallam Uni has reported that NHS should not be given too much stick overy this...apparently this new version of attack is very new, very aggressive and fast. He advised that most companies wouldn't be bale to fight this off...even technology specialist companies. He also clearly said them having windows XP...although not ideal has no bearing on the extent or defense of this attack.

I haven't worked for the NHS for a long time, but from my experience can I ask people to please not blame the staff or the IT depts for this. With this level of attack no system is safe.

NHS staff of all levels and expertise do their very best every day to work on IT systems that are not ideal and often without adequate training I how to use them properly. IT systems in the NHS are frequently done on the cheap, but they serve a purpose and they are secure with regard to patient data. More importantly you can trust staff with your data.

As cyber attacks and the people behind them become more and more sophisticated then more and more of our IT systems will be vulnerable. What the NHS and all other public sector and civil service systems need now is funding from the government to make them as secure and as invulnerable as possible.

My DH works in an NHS IT department. He's had a long day and says he needs a beer tonight, and he rarely drinks! But their emergency preventative measures seem to have kept the attack away from his particular NHS trust (for now) so I salute him (and his colleagues obviously)!

I'd also like to add that NHS IT departments have been the silent victims of a lot of funding cuts, with many trusts massively cutting IT budgets many of the IT departments simply don't have the resources to put into IT security anymore, so this was predictable.

Well yes it seems sinister to try to disable the NHS confused it's not just banter is it..

Sorry this made me laugh A LOT

NHS worker in the S.E here. We've had a really fun afternoon. end sarcasm

I'm in paediatrics which is more reliant on old fashioned pen and paper so the effects aren't as significant for us, whereas the adult wards are paperless and having a nightmare. We're not able to get onto the computers due to preventative measures so patients aren't being shifted, discharge letters can't be written etc. etc. Very frustrating when you're in paeds and all you want is for the little ones who you're looking after to spend the night in their own beds. Stunned that there didn't seem to be a nationwide plan for something like this happening.

Fucking scumbags. I hope karma gets them.

My trust has been reported in the press to have been attacked but their twitter feed is saying they haven't.

I work in the IT department and when I left this afternoon a very capable team was on it, and had shut off the Internet and email systems. We are also running Windows 7 so had a bit of extra protection.

It's still going to cause major disruption over the weekend though. Bastards

It's global:
www.theguardian.com/society/live/2017/may/12/england-hospitals-cyber-attack-nhs-live-updates

Ours has - Cheshire and Wirral.

Should get interesting when the pissheads descend on A and E departments tonight.

I left the gp surgery where I work at 1830. I had a couple of internal emails telling us not to use search engines or open dodgy emails but this isn't uncommon, reminders are always good.

I had no idea of any problems until I met dh who asked me how bad it had been.
, , and to everyone dealing with it.