Northern Ireland

Health trust systems still 'at risk' after attempted cyber attack on Queen's

Belfast trust urged all its staff with an affiliation to Queen's to change their passwords
Belfast trust urged all its staff with an affiliation to Queen's to change their passwords Belfast trust urged all its staff with an affiliation to Queen's to change their passwords

A HEALTH trust has said its systems are potentially still at risk following an attempted cyber attack on Queen's University Belfast.

Queen's suspended access to several of its systems after the incident last month, which also affected the Belfast trust.

The university said there was no evidence that any data had been stolen and it was continuing investigations.

Belfast trust had urged all its staff with an affiliation to Queen's to change their passwords. This includes academics and medical students.

In a new letter sent to all staff, the trust said Queen's was continuing to experience technical difficulties as part of its response to the attack.

"The detailed nature of the incident is still unknown and given that situation, this means that HSC systems and services are potentially at risk through existing ICT connections and information transfer," the trust told staff.

"HSC have disconnected a number of services and email (both to and from QUB) in order to minimise the risk to HSC services and the information we hold. This is causing significant disruption to the services which depend on these links and email traffic, and we are working to provide alternative methods to connect to QUB as an interim arrangement.

"Ongoing incident reports have identified that there are still a significant number of attempts by staff to contact QUB email addresses. Whilst these are currently being blocked, staff should cease attempting to contact QUB via email until advised otherwise."

Queen's said such attacks against large organisations were not uncommon and it had robust security measures "which mitigated the immediate operational impact".