Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust Data Breach (2017)

At least 16 hospitals in the United Kingdom are being forced to divert emergency patients today after computer systems there were infected with ransomware, a type of malicious software that encrypts a victim’s documents, images, music and other files unless the victim pays for a key to unlock them. The ransomware is using an NSA exploit leaked by The Shadow Brokers, and has made tens of thousands of victims worldwide, including the Russian Interior Ministry, Chinese universities, Hungarian telcos, FedEx branches, and more. Cybersecurity firm Avast said it had identified more than 75,000 ransomware attacks in 99 countries, making it one of the broadest and most damaging cyberattacks in history. Avast said the majority of the attacks targeted Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan. But U.K. hospitals, Chinese universities and global firms like Fedex (FDX) also reported they had come under assault.