Qilin ransomware, the alleged suspects of the London hospital hack

A ransomware attack that struck pathology services provider Synnovis earlier this week and impacted several major NHS hospitals in London has now been attributed to the Qilin ransomware operation.

According to the CEO of the UK’s NCSC, the Qilin gang is likely responsible for the ransomware incident that compromised the standard operations of various London-based healthcare providers.

The initial investigation claimed that the attack has locked Synnovis out of its systems and is causing ongoing service disruptions to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and various primary care providers across southeast London.

Further, the investigation might have also shown proof, which allowed the NCSC to claim on a news outlet company that the notorious Russian group orchestrated the attack.

 

The Qilin ransomware operators might have only wanted financial gains rather than espionage.

 

Researchers believe that the Qilin ransomware operators want money, as it is unlikely they would have known they would have caused such severe disruption when they set out to attack the company.

On the other hand, an alert on Synnovis’ customer service portal warns of data centre issues and that all systems are inaccessible.

Memos sent by officials of hospitals affected by the Synnovis ransomware attack revealed that this ongoing severe threat has significantly impacted their procedures and operations. Some healthcare operations, including surgery, have been cancelled or routed to other providers because affected facilities allegedly cannot execute them properly.

Furthermore, the NHS said that urgent and emergency services like A&E, urgent care centres, and maternity departments are usually open. An NHS England cyber incident response team is currently assessing the full extent of the attack and its impact on patient and employee data.

As of now, Qilin’s dark web leak site is currently down, which researchers are anticipating if it includes the affected institutions. Potentially affected individuals, especially the patients in the earlier-mentioned hospitals, should be cautious at the moment as researchers are trying to resolve this case to prevent further compromise.