Health leaders have launched an “urgent” blood drive across the country to help major hospitals at the centre of a cyber attack . Russian cyber criminals are behind the ransomware attack which has seriously affected several London hospitals including King’s, the Royal Brompton, Guys’, St Thomas’ and Evelina Children’s Hospital. Ransomware is a type of malware attack in which the attacker locks and encrypts the victim’s data, important files and then demands a payment to unlock and decrypt the data.
What services have been affected? Blood testing services at the hospitals have been compromised after the Qilin gang targeted the pathology firm Synnovis last Monday. Hospitals declared a critical incident as they were forced to cancel a number of operations and blood tests, with serious disruption ongoing. The affected hospitals cannot currently match patients’ blood at the same frequency as usual, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said.
As a result it has launched an “urgent” appeal across England for people with “universal” blood to come forward and donate. People with type O blood are being urged to come forward as their blood is safe to use for the majority of patients. More units of these types of blood than usual will be required “over the coming weeks” to keep services running safely for local patients, NHSBT said.
What do the criminals want? The Qilin gang previously attacked automotive companies, Australian courts, and the Big Issue in the UK. C.