- Ransomware attack has targeted a health care organization in the United Kingdom
- Patient care disruptions have tragically contributed to the death of a patient
- Criminals target critical services because they are likely to pay the ransom
Ransomware attacks are devastating for the victims, but this has now reached a new and tragic level, the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom confirming that an attack on the London hospitals in 2024, the forced ambulances to be diverted and the disturbance of blood contributed to the death of a patient.
This attack targeted Synnovis, a London -based pathology service, and the Cybercriminal Qilin group caused serious disruption to blood test services, and the delay in a blood test was a “contributing factor” to the death of a patient.
About 800 operations and 700 ambulatory meetings have been canceled or reprogrammed due to the attack, and personal information such as names, birth dates, NHS numbers, and even blood test data are suspected of having been compromised and published in the incident.
Tragic consequences
Cybercriminals target critical infrastructure such as hospitals because they are likely to pay ransom in order to put operational services with a minimum of disturbances in order to protect patients, but that, of course, requires a level of disturbance whatever happens.
“A patient was unfortunately deceased unexpectedly during the cyber attack,” confirmed the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
“As is standard practice when this happens, we have undertaken a detailed examination of their care. The patient’s safety incident survey has identified a number of contributory factors that led to the death of the patient. This included a long wait for a blood test result due to the pathology services that have an impact on cyber attacks at the time. ”
It is said that Qilin, the Ransomware gang, demanded $ 50 million from Synnovis in exchange for stolen data, but the reports suggest that Synnovis refused or did not pay the ransom, and the data was then published online.
This is in accordance with the prohibition of payment of government ransomware for public organizations, which aims to dissuade ransomware gangs from targeting public services.
Via The record
