NHS must be ready for another crippling cyber attack, warn MPs
MINISteRS should treat last year’s crippling NHS cyber attack as a warning – and prepare to be targeted again, MPs said yesterday.
a damning report today says the NHS had been lucky because the disruption during the wannaCry attack could have been far worse – and patients’ data could be stolen or compromised if the health service was unprepared for a future attack.
Doctors and nurses were forced to communicate by mobile-phone messaging service whatsapp during the attack when their computers were locked – meaning they could not use NHS email systems.
the Commons’ public accounts committee urged ministers to ‘get a grip’ and treat cyber attacks as a ‘serious, critical threat’.
Committee chairman Meg Hillier, a Labour MP, said: ‘this case serves as a warning to the whole of Government.’
She said it was a ‘foretaste of the devastation that could be wrought by a more malicious and sophisticated attack’, adding: ‘when it comes, the UK must be ready.’
North Korea has been publicly blamed for the wannaCry attack that hit more than a third of NHS hospital trusts last May.
MPs said it was a ‘wake-up call’ for the NHS, with almost 20,000 operations cancelled as staff at 81 hospitals were locked out of their computers.
they said the attack only locked devices, but warned: ‘Future attacks could be more sophisticated and malicious in intent, resulting in the theft or compromise of patient data.’ It follows warnings from security chiefs that Russian hackers are targeting computers in British homes in order to carry out cyber attacks on national infrastructure.
the report said: ‘as the attack unfolded, people across the NHS did not know how best to communicate with the Department or NHS organisations. Some NHS trusts could not access email because they had been infected by wannaCry or had disconnected from the NHS network as a precautionary measure. therefore frontline NHS staff used whatsapp and mobile phones.’
MPs noted that NHS england’s emergency response team could still communicate, but said secure alternative communication channels must be developed.
the report said the Salisbury nerve-agent attack had ‘heightened concerns’ about the UK’s ability to respond to threats.