The past 18 months have seen healthcare services fighting one particular virus, however in the background, they have also been fighting another.

Since 2014, the number of ransomware attacks has been causing havoc within health services, resulting in over 34% of NHS trusts being ‘successfully’ attacked; perhaps most notably in the WannaCry attack in 2017.

Even during the course of the pandemic, ransomware-based cyber-attacks have rendered some systems inaccessible by staff, resulting in handwritten documentation. 

One of the most recent attacks happened in May this year when the Irish Department of Health and Health Service Executive were targeted. This particular attack caused substantial cancellations to outpatient services, which in some departments reduced by 80%.  

In the 2017 WannaCry attack, a Department of Health and Social Care report estimated that around £20 million was lost due to lost output with a further £72 million spent in resorting IT support and systems.

Healthcare IT systems, which hold electronic Patient Health Information (ePHI), are historically vulnerable, sometimes using older software on a mass scale in order to facilitate the required accessibility for staff members across multiple sites.

In 2020 a Freedom of Information (FOI) request was submitted to all UK NHS trusts in respect of ransomware attacks and their subsequent impact on services.  Results showed that over the past five years, at least 209 attacks have occurred, resulting in nearly 206 days of downtime in total.  However, some trusts who took part in the FOI were unable to calculate the true impact of attacks, meaning that these figures could be much higher.

In response to the WannaCry attacks there has been an increased investment into NHS digital infrastructures and upgrades to software in order to minimise vulnerabilities, along with cyber awareness training for staff.  However as documented earlier this year in Ireland, the risk of cyber attacks is still very real, and equally disruptive.

Interested in learning more? Click to find more news stories brought to you by HealthHubble.

Carrie Plummer - Editor & Content Manager