The Government has set out its cyber strategy for the NHS to build “cyber resilience in health and adult care by 2030”.
The announcement plan includes 5 key ways to bolster the NHS cyber credentials, to “protect health and adult social care functions and services, which the whole nation depends on.”
The NHS and its suppliers have had to deal with a number of cyber challenges in recent years. For example in August last year NHS digital supplier Advanced admitted a ransomware attack was responsible for disrupting the NHS’ 111 services.
NHS cyber attacks
But perhaps the most famous cyber incident for the NHS took place in 2017, when the “relatively unsophisticated” WannaCry ransomware outbreak devastated large swathes of the NHS, as well as many organisations and businesses around the world.
Attacks against healthcare providers are still ongoing, as evidenced by the recent ransomware attack on a major hospital in the Spanish city of Barcelona.
In 2019 a whitepaper from Imperial College London warned the NHS remains vulnerable to hackers. The whitepaper blamed outdated computers, lack of investment, and sparsity of skills, which meant the NHS remained vulnerable to…
