Cybersecurity Experts in United Kingdom Investigate Barts Health NHS Trust Cyberattack

British cybersecurity officials are currently conducting an investigation into suspicious  cyberattack on hospitals such as Barts Health NHS in London. The attack result to the disclosure of confidential documents on the Internet.

The perpetrators behind this incident is a gang of Russian-speaking cybercriminals known as ALPHV or BlackCat. Last week, they boldly claim on their website that they had successfully acquired a staggering seven terabytes of internal documents from the Barts Health NHS Trust.

Bart Health NHS Impact in United Kingdom 

Barts Health NHS Trust manages a total of five hospitals in London, providing healthcare services to approximately 2.5 million individuals. Consequently, it stands as one of the largest healthcare providers in the country. It is important to note that the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales comprises over 200 trusts, all of which operate as a not-for-profit, public benefit corporations responsible for managing and delivering medical services.

This breach represents the third major cyberattack that Barts Health has endured within the past six years. In January 2017, the trust’s systems were infected with malware, resulting in disruptions to hospital pathology departments, as outlined in an internal report. Just a few months later, in May 2017, Barts Health fell victim to the infamous WannaCry ransomware outbreak. The attack necessitated the redirection of emergency ambulance services to alternative hospitals, according to a government review.

ALPHV is notorious for deploying ransomware, a malicious software that encrypts victims’ computers and renders them inoperable. 

As evidence of their activities, the gang has already published a selection of files obtained from Barts Health. These files include copies of employees’ driving licenses and passports, as well as confidential internal emails and correspondence. In their broken English, the hackers boast on their dark web page that this data haul from Barts Health constitutes the “most significant leak from the healthcare system in the UK.”

BlackCat Recent Cyberattack 

BlackCat, the notorious hacking group, is  recently  in a malvertising campaign involving the exploitation of WinSCP. Hackers uses this open-source file transfer application to distribute malware. The distribution of the malware took place through cloned webpages, cleverly designed to mimic legitimate organizations. In this instance, the WinSCP open-source webpage application becomes the target.

Taking this incident seriously, the UK’s National Cybersecurity Centre has issued a statement affirming their collaboration with Barts Health NHS Trust and other relevant partners to fully comprehend the impact of this incident. The Information Commissioner’s Office, responsible for overseeing data privacy in the UK, has also acknowledged the receipt of a data breach report from Barts Health and has initiated an assessment of the situation.