A dach-ing look for Jez
HEALTH CHIEFS ‘WERE WARNED ABOUT THREAT’
CODY the dachshund gives Jeremy Corbyn a hangdog look as they meet on the campaign trail. The Labour leader looked startled by the cute pooch’s steely glare outside the James Paget Hospital in Norfolk. The hospital was one of dozens hit by a cyber attack, blocking access to patient records. Mr Corbyn claimed warnings to renew computer protection in the NHS had been ignored.
HEALTH Secretary Jeremy Hunt was last night accused of “ignoring extensive warning signs” of the NHS cyber attack. Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth claimed staff had repeatedly raised concerns about the outdated software used by the service. He said the 14-year-old Windows XP system had been “extremely vulnerable” to an attack after a £5million-ayear maintenance deal with Microsoft ended last May. In a letter to Mr Hunt, he wrote: “As Secretary of State, I urge you to publicly outline the immediate steps you will be taking to significantly improve cyber security in our NHS.” He said health trusts had been running thousands of unsupported Windows XP machines since a maintenance deal ended. He claimed: “It effectively means that unless individual trusts were willing to pay Microsoft for an extended support deal, since May 2015 their operating systems have been extremely vulnerable to being hacked.” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn blasted the “21st Century highway robbers” behind the “unbelievably disgusting attack”. He said he was “very angry” the failure to renew the Microsoft deal had led to “this dreadful situation”.
Mr Corbyn spoke 24 hours after Friday’s hacking, which saw computers at 48 health trusts frozen by “ransomware” which demanded money to be removed.
Scores of hospitals were plunged into chaos, with operations and appointments cancelled.
The hackers also targeted public services and private companies across Britain and worldwide. In Sunderland, car maker Nissan had to halt production after being hit, while Germany’s Deutsche Bahn rail operator faced glitches.
Yesterday, Home Secretary Amber Rudd chaired an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss the attack.
She admitted crucial medical files may be lost forever and said there were “lessons to learn”.
The National Cyber Security Centre said experts were “working around the clock” to fix the problem, with security services hunting the hackers behind it.
Last night, a British scientist told how he helped stop the attack.
Darren Huss, 22, noticed the crooks were using a web address he owned to spread the virus. As a result, he was able to activate an in-built “kill switch” to halt them.