NHS computer systems hacked!?
- Thread starter Tone1979
- Start date
Per affected computer I would imagine.
Each individual computer is encrypted with a unique key, thats $300 per computer.
It's a cryptolocker style attack. It has encrypted all of the files on the computer and the only way you can decrypt them is to pay the ransom and hope they decrypt it for you.
If you have all of your files backed up, you can wipe your system and restore everything. If you dont have a backup, you dont have many options.
If antimalware and antivirus can't kill it it's easier and safer just to start again. If you have backups that aren't connected to your pc then it's not an issue as you can just download again.
Ransomware tends to encrypt anything you could use to recover your system so it's futile trying anything other than paying or hoping that someone releases a key generator within the allotted time.
Yeah but they'll lose all the data on the PC.
Surely this should be considered an attack on our countries infrastructure, I would hope GCHQ and MI6 would be looking into this and finding who did it
Sounds like NHS just happened to get stung if has happened to other companies elsewhere in the world
Considering how this sort of malware works how they going to get back to pre maleware?
They've said no data acessed but that's all very well and good I belive that but what happens if that data that is there has been encrypted ?!
Considering how this sort of malware works how they going to get back to pre maleware?
They've said no data acessed but that's all very well and good I belive that but what happens if that data that is there has been encrypted ?!
This reminds me of a story a security consultant told when I was at a conference last year - The NHS uses smartcards that you have to insert into the keyboard to access the IT system. An NHS manager was explaining to him how super secure this system was when they walked up to a PC and he saw that someone had cut the card in half and sellotaped it into the slot with a note saying "DO NOT REMOVE!!"
WikiLeaks exposed the fact that the CIA had found security holes in industrial hardware routers/switches and rather than alert the manufacturers they just kept quiet so that they could spy themselves, I thought at the time it's pretty stupid to think hackers wouldn't find those same holes sooner or later. That said I bet some NHS computers are still running Windows 95.
Any more background on other companies potentially being hit here? Any sources?
Ideally there shouldn't be any data on individual PCs though (should all be on properly protected servers/NAS/SAN etc), so should just be a case or reimaging a load of PCs.
Aren't the NSC a part of GCHQ? if so they are already on it as well as the NCA. Not sure how easy it is to trace ransomware, expeically if it has lain dormant for a time on the system and just activated today.
Or use Macrium or other software to backup your system daily, keep as many revisions a large hard disk can hold, once the disk fills up the oldest backup is deleted.
Password protect the back-ups.