NHS hospitals hacked: Operations cancelled after cyberattack

A ransomware cyberattack on the NHS has brought the service into meltdown with operations cancelled and GP surgeries closed.

Non-emergency procedures have been suspended and ambulances are being diverted as part of what is now believed to be a co-ordinated attack targeting dozens of countries.

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The IT systems of 23 NHS organisations in England and Scotland, including many trusts and hospitals, have been affected by the ransomware attack.

The attacks involve malicious software blocking victims from accessing data and demanding a ransom in exchange for access being returned.

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One junior doctor, who wished to remain anonymous, told Sky News the hackers had "stopped access to everything, including patients' medical records" at their hospital and warned: "It could be potentially life-threatening."

Some hospitals such as Colchester General Hospital have not been directly targeted but are protecting their IT systems by completely shutting them down as a precaution.

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Prime Minister Theresa May said there was no evidence patient records had been compromised.

Other organisations in up to 74 countries have also fallen victim, including Spanish telecommunications firm Telefonica and Portugal Telecom. Tens of thousands of computers are thought to be affected worldwide.

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Sky News Technology Correspondent Tom Cheshire described the NHS attack as "unprecedented".

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

NHS Digital, which runs the health service's IT systems, believes it has identified the malware software known as WannaCry, also known as Wanna Decryptor, which appears to be requesting $300 from victims to decrypt their computers.

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"At this stage we do not have any evidence that patient data has been accessed," NHS Digital said, adding that it will "continue to work with affected organisations to confirm this".

"NHS Digital is working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Health and NHS England to support affected organisations and to recommend appropriate mitigations.

"This attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors."

Sky News producer Wil Longbottom, who was receiving treatment at Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, as the cyberattack was under way, said: "It's pretty chaotic - when I arrived I was told there was a 'situation' involving major trauma with some patients being sent to other hospitals.

"Hospital staff are rushed off their feet as they have to take blood tests by hand to other departments from A&E, and they can't access medical records or check information."

The incident has also reached Scotland, where half of the health boards have been affected by the attack.

NHS Lanarkshire said only patients who required emergency treatment should go to hospital while the problem was being investigated.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Scotland's biggest board, as well as NHS Tayside, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Forth Valley said some of their GP surgeries had been affected.

NHS Western Isles, NHS Fife and NHS Borders also said they had, to some degree, been disrupted.

The ransomware software appears to have incorporated code developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA), which was made public earlier this year by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers.

NHS organisations have had since March to patch the vulnerabilities which were made public as a result of the Shadow Brokers' online dump of NSA hacking tools.

Last year a Sky News investigation discovered that NHS trusts were putting patients at risk, with seven trusts spending nothing on cybersecurity in 2015.