On Monday 3 June, Synnovis - which provides pathology services to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospitals NHS Trust - was the victim of a ransomware cyberattack. All of Synnovis’ IT systems were affected, resulting in interruptions to many of its pathology services.
In a statement, Mark Dollar, Synnovis CEO said: “It is still early days and we are trying to understand exactly what has happened. A taskforce of IT experts from Synnovis and the NHS is working to fully assess the impact this has had, and to take the appropriate action needed. We are working closely with NHS Trust partners to minimise the impact on patients and other service users.
“We take cybersecurity very seriously at Synnovis and have invested heavily in ensuring our IT arrangements are as safe as they possibly can be. This is a harsh reminder that this sort of attack can happen to anyone at any time and that, dispiritingly, the individuals behind it have no scruples about who their actions might affect.The incident is being reported to law enforcement and the Information Commissioner, and we are working with the National Cyber Security Centre and the Cyber Operations Team.”
The NHS reported that disruption continued to affect services at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and primary care providers in south-east London on Wednesday 5 June.
An NHS London spokesperson said: “All urgent and emergency services remain open as usual and the majority of outpatient services continue to operate as normal. Unfortunately, some operations and procedures which rely more heavily on pathology services have been postponed, and blood testing is being prioritised for the most urgent cases, meaning some patients have had phlebotomy appointments cancelled."
The BBC is reporting that the attack was carried out by gang of Russian cyber criminals.