Third-party ransomware attack triggers emergency declaration in London hospitals

Numerous major health providers across London have issued an emergency declaration to postpone non-emergency patient care following a ransomware attack that disrupted all IT systems of third-party medical testing and diagnostics provider Synnovis, the recovery timeline of which remains to be uncertain, Ars Technica reports.

Included in the London hospitals affected by the incident were Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College Hospital, which already deferred operations that required blood transfusions to other health providers, as well as the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.

"The Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, and the National Cyber Security Centre are working together to investigate a cyber incident affecting a number of NHS organizations in South East London. Patient safety is our priority and support is being offered to the impacted organizations," said a government spokesperson.

Such a development follows a report from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence showing the almost twofold rise in healthcare-targeted ransomware attacks around the world last year.