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NHS Hit by Cyber Attack: Criminals Publish Stolen Data

June 21, 2024
Hundreds of operations and appointments are still being cancelled two weeks after the incident

According to NHS England, a cybercrime gang has purportedly posted sensitive data from a ransomware attack on an NHS supplier online.

On June 3, Synnovis, which mainly serves south-east London and offers pathology services for blood tests, fell victim to a cyberattack that is thought to have been carried out by the Russian organization Qilin.

Hundreds of operations and appointments are still being cancelled two weeks after the incident.

According to the BBC, the cyber criminal group shared almost 400GB of data – including patient names, dates of birth, NHS numbers and descriptions of blood tests – on their darknet site and Telegram channel. It is not known if test results are also in the data.
Spreadsheets containing financial arrangements between hospitals and GP services and Synnovis were also published, the BBC reported.

More than 1,130 planned operations and 2,190 outpatient appointments have been postponed at LLondon hospitals, with the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust hit the hardest.

The Independent previously revealed that thousands of blood test samples were set to be destroyed as a result of the cyberattack, with GP practices in London only able to complete 400 tests out of 10,000 a day.

NHS England has now committed to publishing weekly data on the impact of the cyber attack, after admitting it will take months for hospitals to fully recover from its impact.

Among those to have their operations cancelled is Russell Ashley-Smith, 81, who told The Independent that he has been left fearing for his health after his life-saving operation was cancelled.

He is awaiting complex open heart surgery at King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill, without whcih he may only have up to two years to live.
In a statement on Friday morning, NHS England said: “NHS England has been made aware that the cyber criminal group published data last night which they are claiming belongs to Synnovis and was stolen as part of this attack.

“We understand that people may be concerned by this and we are continuing to work with Synnovis, the National Cyber Security Centre and other partners to determine the content of the published files as quickly as possible.

“This includes whether it is data extracted from the Synnovis system, and if so whether it relates to NHS patients.

“As more information becomes available through Synnovis’ full investigation, the NHS will continue to update patients and the public.”

Synnovis, in a statement on Friday, said: “We know how worrying this development may be for many people. We are taking it very seriously and an analysis of this data is already under way.”

Between June 10-16, the second week after the attack, more than 320 planned operations and 1,294 outpatient appointments were postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

The number of rearranged planned operations has gone down by 494 since the first week after the attack, June 3-9, but the number of missed outpatient appointments has increased by 394.