London hospitals cancel operations amid severe cyberattack

A significant ransomware attack that targeted a private company that analyses blood tests has severely disrupted services at seven hospitals under two NHS trusts, forcing several well-known hospitals in London to cancel operations and blood transfusions and announce a critical incident.

The hospitals that are impacted are the Princess Royal Hospital in Orpington, Kent, Guy’s Hospital, St. Thomas’ Hospital, King’s College Hospital, Evelina Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital, and Harefield Hospital. The impact of the cyberattack has been significant, resulting in the postponement or transfer of certain scheduled cesarean operations to alternative facilities.

 

The ransomware attack that hit Synnovis has disrupted services at the affected London hospitals.

 

The fraudsters gained access to Synnovis’s IT infrastructure by installing ransomware, which locks down computers and demands money to unlock them. This incident has resulted in significant service disruptions in the affected London hospitals, especially regarding blood transfusions. While outpatient visits and emergency care are still available, elective surgeries have been cancelled or moved to different locations. NHS’s London area has initiated “mutual aid” processes to lessen the impact, requesting support from other hospitals throughout the city.

The blood test analyses for these hospitals are managed by Synnovis, a joint venture between Guy’s and St. Thomas’ (GSTT) and King’s College trusts and the private company Synlab. The alliance has contracts valued at around £1.1 billion with Synnovis to deliver these essential services.

The CEO of GSTT, Prof. Ian Abbs, updated employees about the severe IT problem that is still going on, emphasising how it will significantly affect the provision of services, particularly blood transfusions. The CEO of Synnovis, Mark Dollar, announced the creation of a task team of professionals from Synnovis and the NHS to address the problem and take appropriate measures. Dollar stressed that these kinds of attacks act as clear indications of cybercriminals’ relentless nature.

In addition to working with the National Cyber Security Centre and Cyber Operations Team to address the problem, Synnovis has reported the incident to the information commissioner. Due to the limited means of communication with Synnovis’s laboratories, non-urgent bloodwork has had to be cancelled or reassigned, which has resulted in significant delays. Direct connections to the servers of Synnovis have been cut off in order to stop the infection from spreading further.

Sensitive data is frequently extracted during ransomware attacks, along with threats that distribute the data if the ransom is not paid. Ransomware attacks also frequently lock down systems. For Synlab, the parent firm of Synnovis, this latest attack is the third of its kind in the last 12 months.

Due to their vital role and frequently underfunded IT systems, ransomware gangs are increasingly focusing on healthcare services. Healthcare providers may be more inclined to pay ransoms due to the urgent need to promptly restore patient services, which makes them a prime target for cybercriminals.

Better cybersecurity measures are of vital importance in the healthcare industry, as seen by the rising frequency of ransomware attacks on these services.