A cyberattack, first identified last Thursday, has caused a “major” computer system outage affecting companies within the NHS, including the 111 call line.
Reportedly, a number of health and care systems delivered by business software and services provider Advanced are currently experiencing major outages.
Advanced has 26 NHS clients, according to Digital Health Intelligence, and they supply services to thousands of healthcare professionals. The company’s Adastra software works with 85% of NHS 111 services, where service remains affected as a result of the attack. Adastra is used to refer patients for care, including out-of-hours appointment bookings, emergency prescriptions, and ambulance dispatching.
Neither NHS England nor Advance would initially confirm reports that a cyberattack was to blame.
However, last Friday, Advance’s Chief Operating Officer Simon Short confirmed the incident occurred as a result of a cyberattack and said that the company had taken action which contained the attack, adding that “no further issues have been detected.”
An NHS England spokeswoman said NHS 111 services are still available and that there is “currently minimal disruption”, adding that “tried and tested contingency plans are in place for local areas who use this service”.
In 2017, the NHS was hit by a large cyberattack carried out by the ransomware gang WannaCry. Javvad Malik, Lead Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4, notes: “The 111 outage brings back many unfortunate memories of Wannacry which crippled the NHS. While no details have been released about the root cause of the 111 service outage, all signs would seem to indicate ransomware to be the cause.”
“One n ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
