WannaCry is the ransomware that has quickly spread across NHS workers computer systems. This happened Friday afternoon into Friday evening. With NHS workers unable to access computer systems and patient records, many have had to divert patients to other hospitals.
NHS Digital has said: “it doesn’t appear that the attack has compromised any patient data” however with widespread system outages and the ransomware still spreading itself onto other computers within the network, who knows what type of damage this has caused.
Today Twitter users have started to report further ransomware attacks around the world in places like airports, schools and hospitals. Increasing pressure on authorities to try and stop this widespread attack quickly.
But how did basic ransomware like this make its way onto NHS computer systems? Well more than likely this was down to complete human error.
The NHS has been a continual target of these types of attacks for years now, in fact, NHS staff are regularly tricked into malware and ransomware attacks by NHS IT security staff.
This allows IT, security teams, to make NHS workers more aware of opening unknown documents and inserting unknown USB devices into NHS computer systems.
However, somewhere along the line, this ransomware did manage to get onto an NHS system and spread itself to other systems.
If you’ve become a victim of the WannaCry ransomware attack, don’t panic and don’t pay.
Turn off your system to stop any further attacks on other systems or computers and take your computer to be fully restored by an accredited IT professional.
Your local data may be lost as a restore may be required however most people now keep regular backups of files within the cloud. Once your computer has been restored, it’s well worth downloading a free antivirus program onto your desktop i.e. AVG 2017.
