NHS England has stated that on June 3, a ransomware attack resulted in the theft of patient data maintained by blood test management company Synnovis.On Thursday night, a Russian cyber-criminal outfit called Qilin tried to extort money from Synnovis by sharing nearly 400GB of confidential material on their darknet site.
NHS England released a statement stating that “investigations are ongoing” despite “no evidence” that test results had been made public. The attack caused more than 3,000 doctor and hospital appointments to be canceled. According to NHS England, patients should go to urgent care as usual and should keep going to their appointments unless instructed otherwise.
Cyber security specialist Ciaran Martin told the BBC that one of the biggest and most damaging cyberattacks ever to hit the UK included patient names, dates of birth, NHS numbers, and descriptions of blood tests among the stolen data samples.Additionally, spreadsheets with business account information are available, which shows the financial agreements between GP services, hospitals, and Synnovis.
Two NHS trusts in London use the company’s computer systems, and ransomware hackers broke into them to encrypt sensitive data, rendering IT systems unusable.They also obtained as much confidential information as they could, as is frequently the case with cybercriminals, in an attempt to further threaten the business by demanding a Bitcoin ransom.
It’s unclear if Synnovis engaged in discussions or how much money the hackers requested from the corporation. However, Qilin did not pay because they had made part, if not all, of the data publicly available.Via an encrypted messaging service, the cyber-attackers informed the BBC that they had specifically targeted Synnovis in an effort to exact revenge on the UK for its lack of participation in an unidentified conflict.
NHS England stated in its statement that it keeps up its collaboration with Synnovis and the National Crime Agency. NHS England stated that although “investigations of this type are complex and take time,” it has established a helpline to assist anybody affected by the incident and will keep the public informed.