Synnovis

History

2024

Ransom demand of $50 million by hackers

At the end of June 2024, it became known that a group of hackers blocked the IT systems of a British laboratory service provider with the help of a virus and are now demanding a $50 million ransom. Meanwhile, the ransomware virus attack paralyzed London hospitals for several weeks.

A group of scammers calling themselves Qilin confirmed that on June 4, 2024, it hacked Synnovis, which provides pathomorphological research services, and demanded money in exchange for a code to unlock affected computers. Hackers also threatened to publish data stolen in the virus attack online.

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The incident affected the entire London health care system. In the first week after the attack, doctors canceled about 800 routine surgeries and 700 outpatient appointments, postponed routine blood tests and were forced to keep records manually. At least one hospital asked workers to donate blood on their own to address the shortage of transfusion blood products, and patients in need of intensive care were diverted to other facilities. Many facilities also had to transfer patients who needed cancer treatment and elective C-sections.

Synnovis said it was working to restore access to affected computers. A spokesman for the hackers, in turn, said that although the group regrets the people affected, it refuses to accept responsibility for the loss of life. They see their attack as justified, explaining that the cyber attack was retaliation for the British government's involvement in various wars. The hackers also reported taking advantage of an undisclosed security vulnerability known as a zero-day vulnerability.^[1]

Large-scale cyber attack

At the beginning of June 2024, the largest London hospitals Great Britain had to cancel a number of operations and blood transfusions due to cyber attacks the state medical system.

As a result of the ransomware attack on Synnovis, a private company that conducts blood tests, seven health care facilities were seriously affected, including a children's hospital and two specialized cardiopulmonary therapy centers. One of the maternity centers had to transfer patients to another hospital for planned deliveries by caesarean section.

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As far as we know, hackers have launched a ransomware virus into the Synnovis system, which blocks access to computers until a ransom is received. The Synnovis system secures contracts between the UK's National System and private analytics firm Synlab totalling just under £1.1bn to provide blood testing services. The NHS in Britain said while emergency departments and outpatient appointments at affected hospitals were operating as normal, elective surgeries had to be cancelled or moved to other clinics. Mark Dollar, chief executive of Synnovis, said the company had assembled a working group of experts from the firm and the NHS who are working to resolve the issue.

The cyber attack hit all of Synnovis' IT systems, causing disruption to many of our services. We were harshly reminded that incidents of this kind can happen to anyone anytime, and that the people behind it do not think about the consequences of their actions, Dollar added.

Synnovis reported the attack to law enforcement and is working with the National Cybersecurity Center on countermeasures, but it is not yet clear when they will be able to repel the virus attack.^[2]

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