NHS confirms patient data stolen in cyber attack

NHS England has confirmed its patient data managed by blood test management organisation Synnovis was stolen in a ransomware attack on 3 June.

Qilin, a Russian cyber-criminal group, shared almost 400GB of private information on their darknet site on Thursday night, something they threatened to do in order to extort money from Synnovis.

In a statement, NHS England said there is "no evidence" that test results have been published, but that "investigations are ongoing".

More than 3,000 hospital and GP appointments were disrupted by the attack.

"Patients should continue to attend their appointments unless they have been told otherwise and should access urgent care as they usually would," NHS England said.

A sample of the stolen data seen by the BBC includes patient names, dates of birth, NHS numbers and descriptions of blood tests, something cyber security expert Ciaran Martin told the BBC was "one of the most significant and harmful cyber attacks ever in the UK."

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Source: BBC News, 24 June 2024