London hospitals: Cyber attack causes canceled operations

Following a ransomware attack on the London-based laboratory service provider Synnovis, several hospitals in the English National Health Service (NHS) can only work to a limited extent. Various London hospitals such as Guy's Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital and King's College Hospital have been affected and have had to cancel operations and procedures requiring blood transfusions. This includes operations.

Synnovis provides blood tests, smears and other diagnostic services. According to Synnovis, "all IT systems" are impacted by the attack, which is why many of the pathology services are impaired. IT experts are currently working with the NHS to assess the impact of the attack and "take necessary action […] to minimize the impact on patients […]". Synnovis has reported the incident to law enforcement agencies and relevant data protection authorities.

According to NHS England, other Synnovis customers are also affected – such as the Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals, the largest specialist heart and lung centers in the UK. GP surgeries in Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark are also affected, according to the BBC. The ransomware-as-a-service group "Qilin" (formerly known as "Agenda") is suspected, but there is currently no entry for the attack on Qilin's data leak page. There are no further details or statements as to when the systems will work again or whether data has been leaked.

Supply at risk after cyberattacks

A few months ago, there was a cyberattack on the online platform "Change Healthcare" in the USA, which also restricted care. This also resulted in a data leak influencing a large part of the US population.

Another attack on Octapharma resulted in the closure of more than 150 plasma donation centers in the USA. However, there are also regular reports of successful cyberattacks on healthcare providers in Germany.

(mack)