NHS hit with ransomeware virus

[Suff]

More info.

The particular Microsoft problem we're looking at here were on the block list back in 2015 when I was at ING. NHS has some answering to do on that one...

[cromwell]

these places pay good money for IT services and the operators should know.....

In some places they over pay. There was a "security expert"on the TV this morning. Advice came down to run decent malware protection and most importantly, back up your data in a separate location.

Now excuse me, but this is a ransomeware attack. The virus isn't likely to be in the data, but in the OS or the applications that run on the OS? Because access to the data is being blocked; the data is not (as yet anyway) corrupted. Just using the same servers, OS and applications to access back up data will just replicate the problem?

Kaz, about 12 years since I attended a job interview for the then projected NHS computer system. It was utterly bizarre. I walked out after the interview knowing that it was going to fail, and that some of the people who interviewed me also knew it was going to fail; but that they were still going to go ahead with it!

[Suff]

The Virus super encrypts the data Cromwell. Removing the Virus then restoring from the last backup will do the job, unless the virus encrypted the data in-between, then it would be the backup from the day before.

These corporate systems have backups, or should. The biggest issue is getting them to do monthly restores to test the validity of the backup. Even now you heat stories of backups being taken for a decade but when they desperately need a restore the backups have not been doing the job..

This mess is going to be there for a while.

Typically I'm ruminating on how this will change the job market in the short term. Given it was a global attack and so many places were vulnerable.

[cromwell]

Typically I'm ruminating on how this will change the job market in the short term. Given it was a global attack and so many places were vulnerable.

There will be a boom in contractors rates, I should think! Thanks for the info.

[Workingman]

Just as an aside.......

I am a very naughty boy, I stream live sports. I do it for certain football and rugby matches and quite a bit of motorsport such as F1, Bathurst, Indy 500.... stuff we cannot get here. However, I run a browser in a sandbox or VM because hackers are well known for using such streams as gateways into computers. I must also say at this point that I have a lot of Windows remote services disabled as well.

I have been hit a few times with WannaCry and literally locks your computer. It will not let you off the ransome page - no way, no how. However, all I do is a hard shutdown and restart and I am fine.

Also, I was listening to a white-hat hacker talking to a journalist cum self-appointed cyber security expert on RT this morning. The journo was going on about XP and old Windows and AV and firewalls when the hacker chirped up the old and true mantra "If there is a way out I can find a way in" or STFU!

[Kaz]

Mick says BT is safe, he just had to jump to The Big Bosses tune. He is the lead proxy consultant for BT these days. He says this programme was originally written by the N S A ie the Yanks (put the spaces in on purpose ) but who and why released it is not plain. Frank he would agree with that hacker

Cromwell the NHS has squandered millions on that system!

[AliasAggers]

I understand that some hospitals are still running their computers on Windows XP.

If that's the case, the persons responsible deserve a reprimand.

[Suff]

The problem is, Aggers, that upgrading from older computers, especially with bespoke (custom written), software, can be cripplingly expensive and also you need specialists to do it. I know, I'm one of those specialists. Budgets are set on an aspirational level and then the managers have to fight tooth and nail to get them increased to do upgrades like moving off XP.

Add to that 3rd parties with contracts that make changes and upgrades prohibitive on cost and people take risks.

I know how it all works. Now add this into the mix. The IR35 mandate which drove me to leave my job has also driven thousands more to leave their jobs. One recruiter I spoke to has just changed company because the government contracting job market vanished. NHS can't get IT contractors, they simply won't work for them. Just to add total mayhem to the mix. Now the NHS is in a real mess and if the contractors who left have any sense they'll demand 2x the rate they were on before.

[Workingman]

Two different stories are starting to emerge.

One is that a lot of places held to ransom were collateral damage from an amateurish hit gone wrong. Why ask for only $300bitcoin from the likes of the NHS, FedEx, Renault etc.?

The other is that it was a precursor to what will be a sustained attack and was designed to check out how one would be defeated,.

It has been reported that the attack was brought down by a fluke, a turn of good luck. Hackers blogging amongst themselves about the code bought a domain mentioned within it and it held a kill switch. This might be true, but it could also be a bluff by the authorities to throw the ransomware hackers off track.

Whatever the case the fact remains that ever so many organisations are not protected properly and are open to incursions.

Shut that door!

[cromwell]

The problem is, Aggers, that upgrading from older computers, especially with bespoke (custom written), software, can be cripplingly expensive and also you need specialists to do it.

It's also the reason why old applications limp on long after their sell by date, on old computers. The software is still working (just), so why change it?

So by the time change becomes imperative the job can be very hard indeed. Migration of data from one platform to another, back record conversion, factory testing, site testing, user testing, training of staff to maintain the new application and users to use it....

Will there be more traffic on the network? Will it need upgrading if so? Routers? Do we need more power at the computer suite for the new hardware?

Massive job. Risky and expensive, too.

So many mangers keep kicking the ball into the long grass for as long as they possibly can, avoiding the evil day!