Barts NHS Trust Windows XP PCs infected with suspected ransomware

Thousands of files running on the Trust's Windows XP PCs affected. Yes, Windows XP

The NHS has, once again, fallen victim to a suspected ransomware attack, with the largest NHS Trust in the UK admitting the attack today.

In a notice on its website, Barts Health NHS Trust warned: "We are urgently investigating this matter and have taken a number of drives offline as a precautionary measure.

"We have already established that the Cerner Millennium patient administration system and the clinical system used for Radiology are not affected. We have tried and tested contingency plans in place and are making every effort to ensure that patient care will not be affected."

A source at Barts Health, which has four hospitals in east London - The Royal London, St Bartholomew's, Whipps Cross and Newham - told Health Service Journal that the attack had affected "thousands of files" on the Trust's Windows XP-powered PCs, adding that its file-sharing system between departments has been turned off while an investigation takes place.

No further details about the attack have been revealed, and the Trust has denied that ransomware is involved. However, it comes just months after a ransomware attack forced an NHS Trust in Lincolnshire to cancel operations for four days in October.

In a statement released in December, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust said that a ransomware variant called Globe2 was to blame for the incident.

Despite these recurring attacks, NHS Trusts still haven't seen it as a sign to upgrade from Microsoft's defunct Windows XP operating system, which the company ceased supporting in April 2014.

According to Citrix, which filed a Freedom of Information request, 90 per cent of NHS Trusts are still running Windows XP.

This data, released in December, also revealed that 24 trusts are still not sure when they'll migrate from Windows XP to a newer version of Microsoft's OS. Some 14 per cent said they would be migrating to a new operating system by the end of 2016, while 29 per cent pledged to make the move some time this year.