Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust contains cyberattack on its network

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Walsall Manor Hospital and community health services for about 260,000 people in the West Midlands, disclosed on 23 March 2023 that it had been the target of a cyberattack almost two weeks earlier.

The trust said the incident took place on the evening of 10 March and had been contained. Rich Pearson, the trust's chief information officer, said his team had been working on the response since being alerted to the threat, and asked patients and staff to stay alert to suspicious messages while the investigation continued. The trust did not report disruption to hospital services at the time.

The National Cyber Security Centre and the Information Commissioner's Office were both notified and assisted with the investigation. The ICO noted that medical information is highly sensitive and must be handled securely.

In a later update the trust said a malicious actor had attempted to infiltrate its network and execute ransomware, that the attack was stopped before it ran, but that there was evidence some data had been removed. It said clinical systems were unaffected and that no patient or staff financial data was compromised. After audits by specialist bodies the trust said it could not determine precisely what was taken, estimating that around one per cent of the data it holds was exposed, with no sign of misuse or public release.