Former NCSC head 'not surprised' by attack.
The former head of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has said he is “horrified, but not completely surprised” by the recent attack on Synnovis and the NHS.
In an interview with the BBC, Professor Ciaran Martin, said: "It was obvious that this was going to be one of the most serious cyber incidents in British history because of the disruption to healthcare" and stressed the importance of identifying "single points of failure" in the system and implementing better backups.
In particular, Martin identified three critical issues facing NHS cybersecurity: outdated IT systems, the need to identify vulnerable points, and the importance of basic security practices.
The ransomware
attack began in early June when Synnovis was hit, and subsequently pathology systems at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, as well as GP services across South London, were affected.
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
