Hackers led warplanes to hospital, claims Syria surgeon
A BRITISH surgeon who helped carry out operations in Aleppo fears that the hacking of his computer led to a hospital being bombed by suspected Russian warplanes.
David Nott, a renowned consultant, gave remote instructions via Skype and Whatsapp to doctors carrying out surgery in an underground hospital.
But, after footage was broadcast by the BBC, Mr Nott believes his computer was targeted, allowing hackers to gain coordinates of the M10 hospital.
Weeks later a “bunker buster” bomb destroyed the M10 when planes, believed to be Russian, delivered a direct hit to the operating theatre, killing two patients. The hospital had to close.
Mr Nott believes that the timing of the attack and the precise nature of the target meant the location could only have been gleaned from coordinates on his computer.
Mr Nott, who has carried out dozens of operations in person in Syria, said that following advice from those on the ground, he would not perform any more surgery over his computer.
It is understood the International Committee of the Red Cross will hold a meeting with staff next month to warn of the danger of hacking, using Mr Nott’s fears as an example.
Last night Mr Nott said: “The thing that gets me is that we now cannot help doctors in war zones. If somebody is watching what we are doing and blows up the hospital then that is a war crime.
“It is a crime against humanity that you can’t even help a doctor in another country carry out an operation. It is a travesty.” Whitehall sources told The
Daily Telegraph that technical experts believed that pinpointing a location by carrying out such a hack was plausible.
Aid workers and international watch groups have warned that hospitals have become a target in Syria, with some estimates suggesting that there have been 450 attacks since 2011.
Priti Patel, the former Cabinet minister, said: “It’s a huge, huge issue. We should all pay an enormous tribute to David Nott.
“He is an amazing individual who in the most difficult circumstances has been saving lives in Syria while the bombs of Assad have been falling down.
“It would hardly be surprising if Russian interference was behind the bombing of this hospital. It speaks of the appalling regime and the lack of respect for human life. We need to put pressure on Russia and ask what has happened here.”
Mr Nott has been nicknamed the “Indiana Jones of surgery” for his work in war zones. He has trained surgeons in Syria and has been appointed OBE.
His claims come at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and Britain after the poisoning of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wilts. Vladimir Putin has long been at loggerheads with the West over his support for Bashar al-assad’s forces in Syria.
Experts believe that the sophistication of the bomb that hit the M10 suggests it was dropped by Russian jets.
During the remote operation, which was broadcast by Newsnight on Sept 13 2016, Mr Nott used his computer to
watch closely as his former students carried out jaw reconstruction surgery on Mohammed, a father of three and a shopkeeper alleged to have been hit by a Russian bomb in Aleppo. On Oct 3 the hospital was bombed.
The hospital had been hit at least 17 times, but Mr Nott believes the only way that the precise coordinates could have been revealed was through him. “The operation was the only time coordinates came out of that operating theatre.”
It is unclear when the hacking took place, but Mr Nott believes that somebody may have watched the programme – which was also uploaded to Newsnight’s Youtube channel – and then targeted his computer.
The consultant has since changed his computer and his phone, but does not feel it is safe to link up to operating theatres remotely. He would not speculate on who had targeted his computer, or who dropped the bomb.
Mr Nott had originally raised the issue during a conference at Magdalen College, Cambridge, where he said: “The problem is, of course, that puts us in a very difficult situation. We cannot help anybody any more in Syria. We can’t do it by telemedicine. Obviously, my phone’s hacked, my computer’s hacked. People know what’s going on. So, it has a significant knock-on effect to help people remotely and that’s a very big problem.”
Prof Alan Woodward, from the Surrey Centre for Cyber Security, said it was possible Mr Nott’s computer or phone was targeted during the operation, but it would have been easier for hackers to gain access at a later date.
“You don’t need to do it at the time, you can break in at your leisure,” he added.
Zaher Sahloul, who at the time of the bombing was the president of the Syrian American Medical Society which was running the hospital, said: “Hospitals are targeted so that people cannot live in that area as there is no health care. It is a tactic the regime and Russia have been using since the beginning.
“The bunker-busting missile is so advanced that it is believed that the Syrian regime would not have them, that is why many people believe that it was the Russians who dropped that bomb.”