London clinics: Cyber criminals publish data
As a result of a cyber attack on a pathology service provider, London clinics are in emergency mode. The cyber criminals have now published data.
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After a cyber attack on the pathology service provider Synnovis put London clinics and doctors' surgeries in a precarious situation, the cyber criminals have now published hundreds of GB of data. The attack caused "significant disruption" and put patients at risk, according to a message from the National Health Service (NHS). In this message, the NHS also asked the public to donate blood.
According to the BBC, the cyber criminals gained access to two NHS healthcare facilities via Synnovis and encrypted the systems there.
Double Extortion
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Before the data was published, the criminal group behind the attack, Qilin, had attempted to extort a ransom in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and also communicated with the BBC. They continue to demand a ransom in order to unblock Synnovis' systems and restore control to the IT managers. The criminals have released around 400 GB of data – including patients' names and dates of birth, NHS numbers and details of blood tests, as well as information on patients' ethnicity, for example.
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Qilin has told the BBC that they deliberately attacked Synnovis to punish Britain for failing to help in an unspecified war. According to the BBC, it is one of the worst cyber attacks in the UK. Due to the attack, more than 1000 appointments and operations had to be postponed, including planned caesarean sections. At least 18 organs were passed on to other hospitals for transplantation. Blood tests that would normally have taken an hour now take 6 hours, according to the BBC.
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