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NHS hospitals across England hit by large-scale cyber-attack
From this article it doesn't appear the NHS was a unique target:
The attack comes as several Spanish companies, including the telecoms giant Telefónica, were also targeted by a “massive ransomware attack”, according to Spain’s national cyber-security centre. The attack appears to present the same message to users as those targeting the NHS.
In a statement released following an apparent wave of attacks on Friday morning, the National Cryptology Centre said a cyber assault had been launched “against various organisations”, affecting Windows systems and corrupting networks and archives.
The ransomware used in the Spanish attacks is a version of the WannaCry virus, which encrypts sensitive user data, the National Cryptology Centre said. Telefónica confirmed there had been “a cybersecurity incident” affecting the intranet of some computers at its Madrid headquarters.
How reliant has the NHS become on electronically held records in recent years, does anyone know? I only ask, because when I was last pregnant, over 10 years ago now, you were still being followed everywhere by a giant paper maternity file with all your notes in it as you were passed from one department to the next. Is that still the case or is it all kept in cyber space now?
"Fall seven times, get up eight" - Japanese proverb
NHS hospitals across England hit by large-scale cyber-attack
From this article it doesn't appear the NHS was a unique target:
The attack comes as several Spanish companies, including the telecoms giant Telefónica, were also targeted by a “massive ransomware attack”, according to Spain’s national cyber-security centre. The attack appears to present the same message to users as those targeting the NHS.
In a statement released following an apparent wave of attacks on Friday morning, the National Cryptology Centre said a cyber assault had been launched “against various organisations”, affecting Windows systems and corrupting networks and archives.
The ransomware used in the Spanish attacks is a version of the WannaCry virus, which encrypts sensitive user data, the National Cryptology Centre said. Telefónica confirmed there had been “a cybersecurity incident” affecting the intranet of some computers at its Madrid headquarters.
How reliant has the NHS become on electronically held records in recent years, does anyone know? I only ask, because when I was last pregnant, over 10 years ago now, you were still being followed everywhere by a giant paper maternity file with all your notes in it as you were passed from one department to the next. Is that still the case or is it all kept in cyber space now?
NHS hospitals across England hit by large-scale cyber-attack
From this article it doesn't appear the NHS was a unique target:
The attack comes as several Spanish companies, including the telecoms giant Telefónica, were also targeted by a “massive ransomware attack”, according to Spain’s national cyber-security centre. The attack appears to present the same message to users as those targeting the NHS.
In a statement released following an apparent wave of attacks on Friday morning, the National Cryptology Centre said a cyber assault had been launched “against various organisations”, affecting Windows systems and corrupting networks and archives.
The ransomware used in the Spanish attacks is a version of the WannaCry virus, which encrypts sensitive user data, the National Cryptology Centre said. Telefónica confirmed there had been “a cybersecurity incident” affecting the intranet of some computers at its Madrid headquarters.
How reliant has the NHS become on electronically held records in recent years, does anyone know? I only ask, because when I was last pregnant, over 10 years ago now, you were still being followed everywhere by a giant paper maternity file with all your notes in it as you were passed from one department to the next. Is that still the case or is it all kept in cyber space now?
AnatolyKasparov wrote:There are a few cases where Labour MPs have stayed on for ages because the local party couldn't agree on a successor.
The late Syd Bidwell in Southall was one, Ann Clywd may be a contemporary example. As is Roger Godsiff (71 next month)
But you can't generalise about these things - Paul Flynn may now be in his 80s, but has the energy of several half his age.
My MP doing a sterling job, and has done so in the time I have known him, and has a good working knowledge of what 'reforms' have done to my city. Sometimes age is needed for perspective, I know I have needed assistance in the past, and it materialised, due to efforts made, and when hoped for support in said chamber, also was not disappointed. Not everyones cup of tea, but on the right side, which is preferable to cosmetic replacements like the motormouth in adjacent area. Both likely to be at risk by 2022 from boundary changes, so crazy that I wish there were a way of lobbying against them, if such stuff is similar elsewhere, then everybodies goose is cooked, because the shrinkage of seats and makeover of constituences is another sign that those currently at the helm have no idea of that most British of attributes, a sense of fairness.
AnatolyKasparov wrote:There are a few cases where Labour MPs have stayed on for ages because the local party couldn't agree on a successor.
The late Syd Bidwell in Southall was one, Ann Clywd may be a contemporary example. As is Roger Godsiff (71 next month)
But you can't generalise about these things - Paul Flynn may now be in his 80s, but has the energy of several half his age.
Even assuming that you're right about Flynn, he'll be 87 come the next GE. There are plenty of energetic Labour activists deserving of a seat out there.
Not the least of the problems with these very old MPs is they die. See Kaufman and Meacher. By-elections are really expensive.
AnatolyKasparov wrote:There are a few cases where Labour MPs have stayed on for ages because the local party couldn't agree on a successor.
The late Syd Bidwell in Southall was one, Ann Clywd may be a contemporary example. As is Roger Godsiff (71 next month)
But you can't generalise about these things - Paul Flynn may now be in his 80s, but has the energy of several half his age.
Even assuming that you're right about Flynn, he'll be 87 come the next GE. There are plenty of energetic Labour activists deserving of a seat out there.
Not the least of the problems with these very old MPs is they die. See Kaufman and Meacher. By-elections are really expensive.
You are all heart.
An unpleasant individual
By the way there are loads of activists but they are not allowed to be selected by the NEC
The NHS attack (which probably wasn't actually aimed at the NHS) should be a wake up call to any government that the head in the sand approach to IT security has to end and central government is going to have to spend real money on properly patched and supported software.
This stuff springs from the leaking of NSA attack kits (as highlighted in the Schneier blog I pointed to a few days ago). This stuff was almost certainly leaked by the FSB, it fits Russian behaviour patterns much more than China.
The problem is the NHS spends money on healthcare and always will prioritise this. Central government needs to set up a fund to actually pay for patched and modern critical IT infrastructure for all of the public sector. This will cost huge amounts of money but it has to be done, especially as state actors are developing exploits and those exploits are then getting into the wild.
On the plus side it has kept Corbyn's foreign policy speech off the front page. Let us hope he never mentions it again and sticks to domestic issues.
TechnicalEphemera wrote:The NHS attack (which probably wasn't actually aimed at the NHS) should be a wake up call to any government that the head in the sand approach to IT security has to end and central government is going to have to spend real money on properly patched and supported software.
This stuff springs from the leaking of NSA attack kits (as highlighted in the Schneier blog I pointed to a few days ago). This stuff was almost certainly leaked by the FSB, it fits Russian behaviour patterns much more than China.
The problem is the NHS spends money on healthcare and always will prioritise this. Central government needs to set up a fund to actually pay for patched and modern critical IT infrastructure for all of the public sector. This will cost huge amounts of money but it has to be done, especially as state actors are developing exploits and those exploits are then getting into the wild.
On the plus side it has kept Corbyn's foreign policy speech off the front page. Let us hope he never mentions it again and sticks to domestic issues.
Probably cheaper to update all machines to being able to run win 10. Sounds like old XP machines
On the matter of age in politics. Restricting age at the upper end would lead to a general lowering of age in what is considered the "right" age for MPs. I am all for young talent, but can also see that Parliament needs to be made up of a representative cross section of the population. We have worked hard on representation of diversity in all other areas, and it would not be beneficial to have an age limit. We have not yet got representation to anywhere near representative levels for disability, for instance, or ethnicity, though we are doing better than we once were. Purging Parliament of older people, especially in view of the far later retirement ages now expected in the general population would seem a contradiction in terms, in fact 70 and above has been suggested! Unless people are expected to have no life at all once those sort of ages are reached, and no expectation of an retained ability or intellect, let alone experience, then I would say we would be doing everyone a disservice. However on the matter of how parties work with younger talent is also relevant, I am not sure that it is just about being a good activist or young hopeful, the role demands more. I know there have been younger entrants in the last few elections in all parties who have really grated p, and are not performing too well, and there is a lack of people of talent just above them, on all sides. Perhaps this is when we as a nation really need to take stock. PR was not in the past that suitable here, but now it may be. Though please not the horrible AV that we had to reject not so long ago. However it would need efforts at mass education of the public, they still don't understand what we have got!
TechnicalEphemera wrote:The NHS attack (which probably wasn't actually aimed at the NHS) should be a wake up call to any government that the head in the sand approach to IT security has to end and central government is going to have to spend real money on properly patched and supported software.
This stuff springs from the leaking of NSA attack kits (as highlighted in the Schneier blog I pointed to a few days ago). This stuff was almost certainly leaked by the FSB, it fits Russian behaviour patterns much more than China.
The problem is the NHS spends money on healthcare and always will prioritise this. Central government needs to set up a fund to actually pay for patched and modern critical IT infrastructure for all of the public sector. This will cost huge amounts of money but it has to be done, especially as state actors are developing exploits and those exploits are then getting into the wild.
On the plus side it has kept Corbyn's foreign policy speech off the front page. Let us hope he never mentions it again and sticks to domestic issues.
Probably cheaper to update all machines to being able to run win 10. Sounds like old XP machines
If it was as simple as that do you not think it would be done?
Would that we had a responsible UK government making sure the nation's healthcare delivery system has the resources it needs to function. Tories and their seven years of leadership are nothing but failure
TechnicalEphemera wrote:The NHS attack (which probably wasn't actually aimed at the NHS) should be a wake up call to any government that the head in the sand approach to IT security has to end and central government is going to have to spend real money on properly patched and supported software.
This stuff springs from the leaking of NSA attack kits (as highlighted in the Schneier blog I pointed to a few days ago). This stuff was almost certainly leaked by the FSB, it fits Russian behaviour patterns much more than China.
The problem is the NHS spends money on healthcare and always will prioritise this. Central government needs to set up a fund to actually pay for patched and modern critical IT infrastructure for all of the public sector. This will cost huge amounts of money but it has to be done, especially as state actors are developing exploits and those exploits are then getting into the wild.
On the plus side it has kept Corbyn's foreign policy speech off the front page. Let us hope he never mentions it again and sticks to domestic issues.
Probably cheaper to update all machines to being able to run win 10. Sounds like old XP machines
If it was as simple as that do you not think it would be done?
It will be the replacing of bespoke software that's part of the difficulty, I imagine. A lot of businesses were in the same boat when support for XP was terminated by Microsoft, so Microsoft has continued to provide security updates for XP for businesses for a fee. I was aware of this, but not aware of what is says in the article linked by gilsey above:
Back in April 2014, Microsoft officially ended support for Windows XP, once its most popular operating system (OS) which was favoured my many businesses and government agencies around the world.
As of that point, Microsoft stopped releasing security patches for the OS, meaning hackers have been free to exploit any vulnerabilities found since then, with the exception of those organisations willing to pay Microsoft for an extended support deal.
The UK government was one such organisation, paying Microsoft the princely sum of £5.5 million to continue providing security support for Windows XP. This deal came to an end in May 2015 and was not renewed, with a the government citing “good progress in moving away from Windows XP across departments and government organisations”.
I find this quite shocking. It never even occurred to me that if any of our public services were still using XP, they might not pay for ongoing security patches. The article is from Dec 2016 so there was clearly concern about residual XP usage in the NHS as recently as that. If it's XP that was the weak spot (rather than outsourced IT contractors failing to upload the recent security patches for newer systems) the UK government would be directly culpable for any consequences from this attack.
"Fall seven times, get up eight" - Japanese proverb
'it's a global attack, it's a global attack, it's a global attack, it's not our Tory fault!'
Tory UK government 7 years letting the NHS get ransacked through negligence
The first thing the creature does is protect Tory party
Willow904 wrote:
I find this quite shocking. It never even occurred to me that if any of our public services were still using XP, they might not pay for ongoing security patches. The article is from Dec 2016 so there was clearly concern about residual XP usage in the NHS as recently as that. If it's XP that was the weak spot (rather than outsourced IT contractors failing to upload the recent security patches for newer systems) the UK government would be directly culpable for any consequences from this attack.
citizenJA wrote:'it's a global attack, it's a global attack, it's a global attack, it's not our Tory fault!'
Tory UK government 7 years letting the NHS get ransacked through negligence
The first thing the creature does is protect Tory party
Indeed further evidence that May is thick as shit.
It is almost always a global attack, unless they are actively targetting taking out our healthcare (which in my view would be an act of war demanding an armed response).
The question is how resistant are we as a country, first to fall over or last one standing? The number one function of government is to keep its citizens safe.
Few dispassionate observers can doubt that the Conservatives are on course for victory on 8 June, yet there is a curious insecurity and a brittleness about the almost obsessional way they are trying to seal the deal.
Tories might not get returned to government
OMG
I've just received a communication from T May's Tory Headquarters
no deportation threat, they've said I'm skilled and can't leave
an admin gig at the NHS
Last edited by citizenJA on Fri 12 May, 2017 9:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Excellent foreign policy speech today - unless you're a warmonger who likes British bombs killing Yemeni children, of course - and he happened to be talking about cyber security just as the attack on the NHS started.
A little more detail on how the attack on may have come about: According to Prof Alan Woodward, a security expert at Surrey University, it resembles an exploit of “EternalBlue” - the name given to a weakness in Microsoft’s security that is thought to have been identified secretly by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
A hacking group calling itself Shadow Brokers claimed to have stolen information about the vulnerability from the NSA last year, as part of a cache of files. It tried to auction them off but, after no one made a satisfactory bid, reportedly dumped them online for free. Microsoft released a fix and some researchers have suggested that a failure to implement it may have exacerbated the problem.
"Fall seven times, get up eight" - Japanese proverb
Another forum I am not banned from has a crossword thread where you give the next clue containing the answer,I've managed one,a lot harder than I thought.One bloke in particular is,what I would call an expert in doing so whilst letting his views known,in how shall I put it,in strong terms.
Their latest
(Answer was reset)
Reset cast on very private arrangement,the utter cunts.(12,5)
It seems, from the reports I've read, that it's England and Scotland which have been affected by the cyberattack. What would be the reason for the Welsh and Northern Ireland sites being unaffected? Random good luck or some other reason(s)?
(I'm not in the slightest bit technically savvy - so sorry if it's a stupid question.)
PorFavor wrote:It seems, from the reports I've read, that it's England and Scotland which have been affected by the cyberattack. What would be the reason for the Welsh and Northern Ireland sites being unaffected? Random good luck or some other reason(s)?
(I'm not in the slightest bit technically savvy - so sorry if it's a stupid question.)
Does NHS Wales use the same computer system? It could very well be they decided to make alternative arrangements
It costs a fortune to buy WindowsXP patches, did NHS Wales get those along with England & Scotland?
PorFavor wrote:It seems, from the reports I've read, that it's England and Scotland which have been affected by the cyberattack. What would be the reason for the Welsh and Northern Ireland sites being unaffected? Random good luck or some other reason(s)?
(I'm not in the slightest bit technically savvy - so sorry if it's a stupid question.)
Does NHS Wales use the same computer system? It could very well be they decided to make alternative arrangements
It costs a fortune to buy WindowsXP patches, did NHS Wales get those along with England & Scotland?
Well, I was wondering if that were the case.
But I thought that the NHS in Wales was supposed to be crap . . .
PorFavor wrote:It seems, from the reports I've read, that it's England and Scotland which have been affected by the cyberattack. What would be the reason for the Welsh and Northern Ireland sites being unaffected? Random good luck or some other reason(s)?
(I'm not in the slightest bit technically savvy - so sorry if it's a stupid question.)
Does NHS Wales use the same computer system? It could very well be they decided to make alternative arrangements
It costs a fortune to buy WindowsXP patches, did NHS Wales get those along with England & Scotland?
Well, I was wondering if that were the case.
But I thought that the NHS in Wales was supposed to be crap . . .
sat around the table and discussed arrangements
budgeted the scanty resources given them
we can't afford that Microsoft b***sh**
we'll use pen & paper
TechnicalEphemera wrote:Meanwhile over at Comedy Central The Donald appears to be having something of a don't mention the war moment over the Comey sacking.
You do start to wonder whether he is playing with a full deck.
I liked the distance Corbyn put between Trump & the rest of the US. I thought Corbyn's handling of US history & the current person in the White House were very good but don't know if it was verbatim. I didn't see or hear Corbyn give his speech today, I read it.
howsillyofme1 wrote:There have been two people on here who have dismissed Corbyn's speech as being 'unmentionable' and 'dire'
I just would ask what was deserving of such a response?
It comes across as hopelessly naive at best and disingenuous at worst.
A classic example is his stuff on Syria, where he goes after Trump for basically stopping the use of chemical weapons. By any measure that intervention was both proportionate and so far at least hugely succesful. Then he talks about stopping taking action against ISIS and somehow achieving a miracle at the peace talks (which have achieved nothing).
Hidden away in there as well a reference to reducing tensions with Russia, which is Corbyn code for withdrawing troops from NATO allies who are desperately worried about an actual Russian invasion.
His track record on foreign policy is dire and ripe for exploitation by the Tories. Therefore the less he talks about this stuff and concentrates on domestic policy, where May is vulnerable in a whole host of areas the better for all concerned (except the Tories).
howsillyofme1 wrote:There have been two people on here who have dismissed Corbyn's speech as being 'unmentionable' and 'dire'
I just would ask what was deserving of such a response?
It comes across as hopelessly naive at best and disingenuous at worst.
A classic example is his stuff on Syria, where he goes after Trump for basically stopping the use of chemical weapons. By any measure that intervention was both proportionate and so far at least hugely succesful. Then he talks about stopping taking action against ISIS and somehow achieving a miracle at the peace talks (which have achieved nothing).
Hidden away in there as well a reference to reducing tensions with Russia, which is Corbyn code for withdrawing troops from NATO allies who are desperately worried about an actual Russian invasion.
His track record on foreign policy is dire and ripe for exploitation by the Tories. Therefore the less he talks about this stuff and concentrates on domestic policy, where May is vulnerable in a whole host of areas the better for all concerned (except the Tories).
He must have made a lot of changes to the speech. I read the one below.
I don't care about Corbyn. If the man fails people, country and Labour, he's a goner.
