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A patient died as a result of a ransomware attack on the National Health Service last year, which disrupted thousands of appointments and procedures at major London hospitals.<\/p>\n
Synnovis, which processes blood tests on behalf of some NHS organisations, was hacked by Russian-speaking cyber crime group Qilin, which subsequently released 400GB of information<\/a> it said it had stolen from the provider. <\/p>\n The attack in June last year caused significant disruption at the pathology departments of King\u2019s College Hospital and of Guy\u2019s and St Thomas\u2019 NHS Foundation Trust. <\/p>\n The newly reported death was in part caused by the patient\u2019s delayed blood test results. The major incident underscores the extra digital security risks as a result of the increasing use of private service providers by the NHS. <\/p>\n Last week, the South East London Integrated Care Board said it had identified 170 cases of patient harm in relation to the attack, the majority of which were classified as \u201clow harm\u201d. A law enforcement investigation into the cyber attack is ongoing.<\/p>\n However, in a statement on Wednesday, King\u2019s College Hospital Foundation Trust confirmed the patient\u2019s death, first reported by the Health Service Journal.<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, one patient sadly died unexpectedly during the cyber attack,\u201d a spokesperson said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe patient safety incident investigation identified a number of contributing factors that led to the patient\u2019s death. This included a long wait for a blood test result as a result of the cyber attack impacting pathology services at the time,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n