Despite an attempted ransomware attack on the the internal and external IT systems of the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) this weekend, all patient data appear to be safe, and the labs themselves remain functional, said officials.
“However, the IT systems remain inaccessible internally and externally, including to and from healthcare facilities, until the integrity of the environment is secured and repaired,” said Professor Koleka Mlisana, CEO of the NHLS, on Tuesday.
News24 reports that the NHLS has a huge network of laboratories and is the only source of lab services for the public sector, where among other things, samples of body fluids, tissue, and cells are analysed to help detect, diagnose and treat various diseases.
Mlisana said preliminary reports indicate that client information has not been leaked, and that all patient data were safe.
“But sections of our system have been deleted, including in our backup server, which will require rebuilding. Unfortunately, this will take time.”
She said all laboratories remained fully functional, despite the status of the IT systems, but instead of using the normal digital system to inform clinicians of lab test results, labs are communicating telephonically instead.
In the UK, a Russian cyberattack on the NHS means some British patients have to wait up to six months for blood tests, and led to the cancellation of thousands of operations, including transplant surgeries, reports The Guardian.
Hospitals in south-east London affected by the hacking gang’s seizure of 300m pieces of NHS data have been writing to patients to warn them they cannot provide their blood test.
Nine acute or specialist NHS hospitals as well as providers of mental health, community health and GP services across a swath of south-east London serving 2m people have had to severely ration blood tests since the Russian-based Qilin gang’s ransomware attack began on 3 June.
What the NHS has called “significant disruption” caused by the attack also forced King’s College Hospital (KCH) and Guy’s and St Thomas’ (GSTT) health service trusts to cancel 1 134 planned operations and 2 194 outpatient appointments in the first 13 days.
These included 184 cancer procedures and 64 organ transplants.
Qilin unleashed its attack on Synnovis, a provider of pathology services – such as blood tests and transfusions – that is jointly owned by KCH and GSTT and the private company Synlab. As a result, affected hospitals and GP surgeries can only do about 30% of their normal number of blood tests.
The government is considering using the National Crime Agency (NCA) to hit back against Qilin after some of the stolen data were posted online. Qilin had reportedly been demanding £40m ransom.
In February, the NCA deployed a specialist team to take action against LockBit, another gang of Russian hackers. Outfits such as Qilin and LockBit typically infiltrate an organisation’s IT system and prevent them from using it unless they pay a ransom to regain access.
NHS England’s London region acknowledged that the hack would continue to cause major problems for Synnovis and the NHS for months to come.
Synnovis had “plans to begin restoring some functionality”, but the cyber-attack has, in effect, locked it out of its own IT system.
“Full technical restoration will take some time, and the need to rebook tests and appointments will mean some disruption from the cyber incident will be felt over coming months,” it said.
News24 article – All systems down as cyberattack hits govt's national health lab (Restricted access)
The Guardian – NHS patients affected by cyber-attack may face six-month wait for blood test
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Cyber-attack disrupts London hospitals
Cyber-attacks on global healthcare industry red-flagged
SA has highest percentage of human error healthcare data breaches – report