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A cyber attack on health software company Ortivus has led to the shutdown of the ambulance patient records system, affecting several UK NHS ambulance organizations. The attack occurred on July 18 and impacted UK customer systems within Ortivus’s hosted data center environment.
The South Western Ambulance Service Trust and South Central Ambulance Service Trust, with a combined service population of approximately 12 million people, have been using Ortivus’s MobiMed software since 2020.
However, following the cyber attack, these trusts have faced challenges in recording patient data and sharing it with other providers.
South Central Ambulance Service Trust Resorted to Using Pen and Paper
While NHS England and Ortivus have not denied the impact on the trusts, they have refrained from providing detailed information.
Staff at the South Central Ambulance Service Trust resorted to using pen and paper after the incident and were warned about the possibility of phishing attacks, as per The Register’s sources.
Ortivus acknowledged the disruption in their statement, stating that electronic patient records were currently unavailable and being managed manually. They assured that no patients were directly affected, and no other systems outside the hosted datacenter were attacked.
The MobiMed ePR system, designed to monitor and maintain pre-hospital care records and share essential parameters with other care providers, is expected to be relaunched for hosted environment customers once it receives final approval from NHS authorities.
Ongoing Investigation
The company has been cooperating with independent actors for a forensic analysis to meet criteria set by NHS England and the Ambulance Trusts.
The CEO of Ortivus, Reidar Gårdebäck, mentioned that the alternative system was made available within 24 hours of the attack, but integrations with other systems were impacted. While the company is focused on restoring services, discussions regarding compensation for the disruption will be held at a later stage.
Our focus now is just to restore the services and we’re doing everything we can, with all our resources, to get the system up and running again. The discussion regarding compensation will be done later on. We have no indication that any data has been stolen or lost. Of course, we are monitoring that.
As of now, there is no indication that any data has been stolen or lost, and Ortivus is closely monitoring the situation. NHS England’s Cyber Security Operations Centre is working with the affected organizations and law enforcement to investigate the incident and support suppliers in reconnecting the system.
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Madalina, a seasoned digital content creator at Heimdal®, blends her passion for cybersecurity with an 8-year background in PR & CSR consultancy. Skilled in making complex cyber topics accessible, she bridges the gap between cyber experts and the wider audience with finesse.
