Advanced, a key IT partner of the NHS, was attacked by ransomware last week. Company said it could take three to four weeks for systems to resume normal operation. Advanced manages many important systems in the health sector including the NHS 111 and other emergency departments. The UK government downplayed the severity of the incident.
Last week, Advanced, a key IT partner of the NHS, was attacked by ransomware. The IT company said it could take three to four weeks for systems to resume normal operation. Advanced manages many important systems in the health sector. One of its main customers is the NHS 111 service. The UK government last week sought to downplay the severity of the incident, declaring “minimal destruction.” However, reports indicated that this violated the dispatch of patients, prescribed emergency care, sent an ambulance, and made out-of-hours appointments. Advanced released an update on August 10 stating that Dart, Mandiant, and the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) are working with Microsoft to investigate and fix it, and no further incidents have been detected and documented the initial breach. “As for the NHS, we are working with them and the NCSCs to confirm the October steps we are taking, after which the NHS will bring its services online. For NHS 111 and other emergency department customers using Adastra, as well as NHS Trusts using Financials, we expect this phased process to begin in the coming days.”In relation to other NHS customers and healthcare organizations, in our current view, we will need to maintain the current contingency plans for at least another three to four weeks. We are working tirelessly to get closer to this schedule and while we hope to do that, we want our customers to be ready.
