On Friday 12th May 2017, the NHS, was brought to a standstill for several days due to the WannaCry outbreak, affecting hospitals and GP surgeries across England and Scotland. Although the NHS was not specifically targeted, the global cyber-attack highlighted security vulnerabilities and resulted in the cancellation of thousands of appointments and operations, together with the frantic relocation of emergency patients from stricken emergency centres. Staff were also forced to revert to pen and paper and use their own mobiles after the attack affected key systems, including telephones.

The WannaCry ransomware exposed a specific Microsoft Windows vulnerability, not an attack on unsupported software. Most of the NHS devices infected with the ransomware, were found to have been running the supported, but unpatched, Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, hence the extremities of the cyber-attack. The ransomware also spread via the internet, including through the N3 network (the broadband network connecting all NHS sites in England), but fortunately, there were no instances of the ransomware spreading via NHSmail (the NHS email system).

NHS England reported at least 80 out of the 236 trusts were affected in addition to 603 primary care and other NHS organisations, including 595 GP practices. The Department, NHS England and the National Crime Agency reported that no NHS organisation paid the ransom, but the Department does not know how much disruption to services cost the NHS although estimates total £92m.

Based on the scenario given above, perform your research and complete the below tasks:

a) Critically discuss on the possible consequences coming from the above security incident. Support your discussion with relevant references.

2. b)  As a newly hired NHS Security Administrator, you were asked to propose FIVE (5) best security measures to help protect NHS’s computer environment from being exposed or manipulated by the NHS’s employee in the case of if any similar future event happens. The proposition shall encompasses but not limited to approaches such as enforcement of appropriate security model, suitable access control techniques, or proper policy and procedures.

   
   

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4. c)  In line with security best practices, the effectiveness of security detection and protection must not only originate from the solution or approaches provided by the service provider, but the awareness and security approaches taken by the employees as the main user. Advocate several best actions to the employees in order to keep their account secure from any ransomware attack.

   
   

5. d)  Blockchain technology is said to have the advantage of excluding external parties from manipulating or controlling data, keeping the record safer and adding security as an impenetrable wall of gatekeepers. In your opinion, how does the blockchain technology provide the necessary safeguard against ransomware? Support your opinions with appropriate justification.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

a Critical discussion on the possible consequences coming from the WannaCry security incident The WannaCry ransomware attack on the NHS in 2017 had a significant impact on the organization and its pat... View the full answer