Malware causes chaos in British health system

More than one hospital was left unable to do even x-rays, among an estimated 40 NHS organisations from London to Scotland affected by the attack on Friday.

Pathology labs, patient administration and beeper alert systems used to summon doctors to surgery were hit.

The country's biggest NHS trust, Barts Health in London, closed its major trauma, heart attack and stroke centres, telling incoming ambulances to divert to other hospitals, as the malware paralysed its IT systems. Routine appointments were cancelled and patients told to find alternative care.

GPs from Yorkshire to Buckinghamshire were forced to resort to pen and paper as their computers went down.

According to media reports, the hospitals and clinics affected had not updated their Windows computers to a recent security patch.

NHS workers opened emails containing the malware, which then spread through hospital and GP clinic systems.

Screens of medical information were replaced with ransom demands from hackers.

Staff were ordered not to touch the machines.

Some unaffected hospitals shut down their computer systems as a precaution until they could check whether they would be able to resist the attack.

Critically ill patients were diverted to unaffected hospitals as computer systems failed in accident and emergency units, The Times reported.

Doctors were left unable to access test results and patient records.

One junior doctor in London told The Guardian "however much they pretend patient safety is unaffected, it's not true", adding his hospital was unable to do any x-rays, "which are an essential component of emergency medicine".

One maternity hospital saw delays discharging new mothers and babies, and nurses were unable to print identity tags for newborns' wrists.

East and North Hertfordshire NHS said its phone system couldn't accept incoming calls after the attack, and it had postponed "all non-urgent activity".

Political fallout

The issue was quickly politicised, as the UK is mid-election campaign and Labour has campaigned strongly on more funding for the NHS.

The Mirror reported that the Conservatives had cut security support for the NHS's outdated computer system a year ago, despite warnings it would leave hospitals open to hackers.

The Government Digital Service, set up by previous prime minister David Cameron, had decided not to extend a ??5.5 million ($9.5 million) one-year support deal with Microsoft for Windows XP, the paper reported. NHS bosses were told they had to either pay to replace the 14-year-old system, or do a separate deal with Microsoft.

Last year government minister Ben Gummer warned that "large quantities of sensitive data" held by the NHS were being targeted by hackers.

However Sky News reported that seven NHS trusts spent absolutely nothing on cyber security in 2015.

The Patients Association told The Times that politicians needed to address NHS cybersecurity.

European targets

Elsewhere in Europe, the ransomware outbreak hit phone company Telefonica, Vodafone and energy supplier Iberdrola in Spain.

Spanish daily El Mundo reported that about 85 per cent of Tel??fonica computers had been affected, and employees had been sent home.

Germany train company Deutsche Bahn reported "system troubles" following the cyber attack had causes failures in "various areas". Train traffic was still possible but passengers shared photos on social media of error messages on railway station message boards.

German hospitals were better prepared, with several hit by ransomware more than a year ago in attacks that brought one hospital's entire computer system to a halt.

In 2015 the German parliament listed 2000 institutions including hospitals as "critical infrastructure" , imposing fines of up to 100,000 euros if they failed to meet information security standards.

Organisations in Belgium, France and Italy were also attacked, and Russia's interior ministry said 1000 of its computers had been infected. Ukraine was also a major target.