Ransomware Attack That Hit London Hospitals Earlier This Month Will Take Longer to Be Fixed

• Earlier this month, a bunch of hospitals and well-known clinics in London were hit by a Russia-backed ransomware attack. Two weeks later, they are still struggling with the consequences.
• Apparently, 400GB of worth of patient data, which was stolen during the attack, was dumped online. And now the NHS has to verify it to see if it's a match, which will be a time-consuming, complex process.
• The NHS also said it sympathizes with the patients who were affected by this attack and set up a website and helpline for them.

The ransomware attacks that hit a number of London hospitals earlier this month will take longer than expected to be fixed because rumors have it that the patient details stolen during this attack have been dumped online.

During the attack, the data of almost 300 million patients were compromised. While we don't know whether everyone's data was leaked or not, we do know that the dump consisted of approximately 400GB worth of data.

The data was leaked on the dark web and Telegram channels and includes names, dates of birth, and a few details from the patient's blood tests.

England's National Health Service said it's aware of this leak and is already verifying the data to see if the rumors are true. However, this is a time-consuming process.

These files are not simple uploads and so investigations of this nature are highly complex and can take weeks if not longer to complete.' - NHS

The agency also empathized with the patients and said that it understands the distress patients are under owing to this crisis, especially those who will have to get re-tested.

To help ease their problems, a website and helpline have been set up for patient queries. However, the agency couldn't make any further comment on the investigation or when we can expect things to get back to normal.

A Little About the Attack

The attack affected King's College and Guy's and St Thomas' hospital trusts, which run several south London hospitals along with a few other clinics and doctors' practices.

It was first noted on June 3 and ever since then, a number of operations have been affected, including blood transfusion, which received the hardest hit of all.

Hospitals had to go back to the old paper-pen method to continue their day-to-day operations but obviously, it's not nearly as effective.

A Russian hacker group called Quilin is believed to be behind the attack. And so far, money seems to be the only motive. However, the British government has a long-standing policy of not giving in to ransom demands, so how this crisis will play out remains a mystery.

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