Hospitals across Britain were paralysed last night after cyber hackers held the National Health Service to ransom in an unprecedented attack that effected computer in scores of countries. Shockingly, there was one report, unconfirmed of a hospital paying $60,000 to free its system. The impact on patients is stunning Countless operations were cancelled and patients turned away as 45 NHS organisations and trusts and hundreds of doctors were locked out of their computer systems. The linked CBC story tells of a British-based researcher registered a domain that he noticed the malware was trying to connect to, limiting the worm’s spread. Thus, attacks are said to be on the decline, at least for the moment. But the damage done yesterday continues. The number of countries struck seems to vary but it is counted in the scores. Russia is said to be paralyzed in many sectors. CBC
