NHS Loses Blood Sample Records of More Than 1,100 Patients Following WannaCry Ransomware Attack
The United Kingdom's National Health Service lost the blood sample records of more than 1,100 patients after their computer system was affected by the WannaCry ransomware attack.
The NHS has several divisions covering various state-funded hospitals and medical centers that provide public health services across the U.K. It is one of the government institutions that has experienced the worst effects of the WannaCry malware spread.
Recently, local reports confirmed that NHS Lanarkshire in Scotland will need to collect new blood samples for the medical records of a thousand of its patients. Apart from losing vital patient information, the NHS suffered problems in their computer systems as well as telephone connections.
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According to their official website, NHS Lanarkshire covers the North and South Lanarkshire territories with more than 650,000 residents.
In The Sunday Post, the director of access for NHS Lanarkshire, Judith Park, said: "Our laboratory and clinical staff worked through the weekend to restore services. All specimens which had been labelled as urgent were processed."
Park added, "Laboratory services are now at full operational capacity and patients who required repeat tests to be carried out have been contacted directly by their GP."
Meanwhile, Margaret Watt of the Scotland Patients Association also expressed her disappointment over the massive cyber attack, saying their waiting lists of patients are already long "without having to be put back by some irresponsible people."
It has also been revealed that many of the computers used by NHS facilities use outdated Windows operating systems such as the Windows XP. Older software platforms were crucial in the spread of the WannaCry worm since these computers do not get the up-to-date versions of security patches.
Meanwhile, the WannaCry attackers demand an amount of between $300 to $600 of the digital currency Bitcoin as ransom for the encrypted files of affected computers.
According to the U.K. division of Ars Technica, the crooks behind WannaCry have made roughly around 55,000 British pounds (around $71,000). There have only been 263 payments made after the hackers attacked close to 200,000 machines around the world.
