NHS app could be exploited by malicious hackers, experts warn

Jack Hardy Mike Wright

A PLANNED NHS app for tracing the contacts of Covid-19 patients could be used maliciously to set off false alerts, making hundreds isolate unnecessarily, experts have warned.

NHSX, the digital arm of the health service, finished its first set of trials of the app this week with a small group of volunteer key workers in the North.

There is no firm timeline for when the app will be released, but NHS chiefs want it to be ready for ministers to deploy as part of an exit strategy.

The app uses Bluetooth signals to indicate when people come into close contact. When a user then reports they have tested positive, or started showing symptoms, the app will trigger an alert to contacts, telling them to selfisolate.

The Daily Telegraph understands a decision on when an alert will be sent

– either after testing or after showing symptoms – has yet to be taken. However, concerns have been raised about how the app might be exploited, either by malicious users, or “trolls”, hoping to send people unnecessarily into lockdown, or by those desperate to prove they are immune.

Dr Richard Clayton, director of the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre, said an app in which users were anonymised would be fraught with complications.

“I’m not seeing evidence that people are thinking this through in terms of ‘why would people tell the truth and if they lied, what advantage would they get?’,” he added. “If I have a maths test tomorrow I might want to say I have a cough this morning … if I can hack your phone, if I’m the Russian government, can I disrupt things by having you type in a positive test result?”

Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge, echoed the concerns, warning trolls might even try to close down a hospital by using the app to send doctors and nurses into isolation.

Others might attempt to purchase codes in order to show, falsely, that they were immune. Mr Anderson added: “We have a very large underground black market for digital goods.”

A study published by Oxford University this week found that an app could halt the spread of the virus if more than 56 per cent of the population used it.

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, told the BBC’S Andrew Marr Show that it was “better to have no app than a bad app”, adding: “We want to make sure that it’s robust.”