Cyber-attack leaves anti ISIS message on trust website

Hackers took over an NHS website to display a political message in a string of cyber-attacks across the Midlands.

Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust’s home page displayed a screen saying “hacked by MuhmadEmad Long Live to peshmarga”, on Sunday.

Peshmarga are Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, fighting the so-called Islamic State.

The hack was reported on the Express & Star, which said two schools, a pub and a holiday website had all been hacked to display the same message.

Dan Howard, head of business intelligence and IM&T at the trust, said in a statement that “a vulnerability was exploited in a WordPress based website hosted on our behalf by TeraFirma, our IT service provider”.

He said only a “small portion” of the website was changed. The hackers did not breach the trust’s underlying IT infrastructure or introduce any malicious code.

“The website contained no patient information and no data breach occurred.”

The message was taken down the same day, Howard said. The trust had now updated its website to WordPress version 4.7.2.

According to local reports, other websites attacked were also hosted on WordPress.

On Wednesday The Independent reported a similar, but more sinister, attack.

Islamist hackers linked to Isis hacked six NHS websites in the south-west of England and posted graphic war images.

NHS leaders are increasingly concerned about cyber security after several high-profile attacks in the past six months.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust shut down most of its clinical system for four days in October last year in response to a ransomware attack. During the downtime, the trust had to cancel nearly 3000 appointments.

In January, Trojan malware infected England’s biggest trust, Barts Health NHS trust, closing some IT systems for four days.

Digital Health Intelligence maintains a database of the administrative and clinical systems in use at trusts, and uses this to calculate a clinical digital maturity index score for them (log-in required). Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust has a score of 47 and is ranked 48 (out of 56 mental health trusts).