England’s Hospitals Told To Boost Cybersecurity Amid Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Hospitals in England have been asked to shore up their cybersecurity as Russian fighting in Ukraine escalates.

Putin sent troops into its neighbor country on Thursday in what a U.S. defense official has called the "largest conventional military attack" since the Second World War.

National Health Service chief operating officer Sir David Sloman warned hospital trusts to improve their cyber defenses in an email sent Friday evening, according to specialist outlet HSJ.

Sir Sloman was following guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre, which on Tuesday told U.K. organisations to "bolster their online defenses" as the Russian threat to Ukraine escalated.

Although the agency hadn't seen any specific threats to the U.K. at the time, it issued the warning as a result of "an historical pattern of cyber attacks on Ukraine with international consequences."

The latest NCSC guidance recommends organisations make sure all software is up to date and backed up. Staff are advised to make sure they are using unique passwords at work, while organisations are told to remove any old and unused accounts.

Further guidance can be found on the agency's official website.

Sloman told hospital bosses specific advice for NHS organisations would be issued in the coming days.

Most recently, Ukraine experienced a "denial of service" attack on two banks, which British officials linked to Russian spy agency GRU. Experts have since warned of "spillover" effects to other countries from this kind of activity, according to The Guardian.

Hospitals in the U.K. have faced online threats before, with the NHS experiencing a major outage in 2017.

More than 80 hospital trusts were forced to switch off their digital systems to prevent a ransomware attack known as "WannaCry" from spreading. Thousands of appointments and dozens of surgeries were cancelled as a result.

In spite of government promises to improve NHS security, many organisations still have aging technology and are relatively vulnerable to cyber attacks.

'Rising global threat'

According to a recent international review, Russian ransomware attacks have increased over the last year.

During an attack, Russian-based or Russian-speaking cybercriminals typically gain access to digital systems through malicious email links, existing software vulnerabilities or force.

Once they have control of data, hackers block access and threaten to delete it unless a fee is paid.

At the time, NCSC CEO Lindy Cameron said: “Ransomware is a rising global threat with potentially devastating consequences but there are steps organisations can take to protect themselves.

“I strongly encourage UK CEOs and Boards to familiarise themselves with this alert and to ensure their IT teams are taking the correct actions to bolster resilience.”

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