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NHS Data Breach Highlights Cyber Risk

July 17th, 2017

Global Cyber Attack Hits 300,000 Computers

The world was shocked by the global cyber-attack that was made targeting everyone and everything. It has since been estimated that 300,000 computers were affected. The cyber-attack was made more famous by the magnitude and also the one large organisation that it managed to penetrate. The NHS is responsible for millions of confidential data records and personal information and one cyber-attack proved that the cyber security risks are huge and its security will need upgrading.

 NHS – Computer Dependent With Huge Risk

The NHS is a trusted organisation in the public sector and as a result would have been high on the list for hackers to target and as a result the cyber security risks would have been huge. This will have meant that cyber-attack is highly likely. And once attacked the organisation ended in meltdown for a day which will have meant that operations couldn’t be carried out and appointments were missed. This demonstrates perfectly the dependence large organisations have on their systems and the vast impact that is can have if the system goes down.

Cyber Attackers Do Not Discriminate

This is a big warning sign to businesses of all sizes and structures that you can never be too safe with data. Not only were NHS files and computers victim to the WannaCry ransomware attack but the files of some of its employees have also been taken as an IT contractors server was hacked. It is currently thought that over 4,000 employees have been affected.

NHS – Failure To Update Systems Leads To Cyber Risk

It has since transpired that the NHS organisations that were affected were still running Windows XP despite being told to change their systems as Microsoft were to stop providing updates for the operating system. It is due to this that the NHS became such an easy target for the bug.

All in all, it hasn’t been the best of times for the NHS. However, as with all failures, there are lessons to be learnt and a lot can be gained by other businesses about the importance of protecting data. Protecting against your cyber security risks should become a priority as an incident could change the way your business operates and have an impact that the business may never recover from.

 

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