{"id":40764,"date":"2017-12-01T14:59:44","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T13:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=40764"},"modified":"2017-12-08T13:09:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T12:09:43","slug":"erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"standfirst\">The NHS and other public sector organisations need to improve their cybersecurity processes\u2014and fast<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40767\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2017\/12\/cyber_attack.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"141\" \/>In May 2017, a ransomware programme known as\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-39920141\">WannaCry<\/a>\u00a0infected hundreds of thousands of devices across the world. In the UK, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/pages\/home.aspx\">NHS<\/a>\u00a0was one of the organisations most severely affected by the ransomware. While individual trusts had experienced cyber attacks before, the WannaCry attack quickly became the largest ever to affect\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.england.nhs.uk\/\">NHS England<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nao.org.uk\/report\/investigation-wannacry-cyber-attack-and-the-nhs\/\">recent report<\/a>\u00a0from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nao.org.uk\/\">National Audit Office (NAO)<\/a>\u00a0concluded that while the exploits used within the ransomware were technically advanced, WannaCry itself was a relatively unsophisticated attack that could have been mitigated if the NHS had followed basic IT security good practice. However, it must be noted that while the security measures that could have helped mitigate the WannaCry are basic, their implementation is not\u2014particularly within a complex organisation such as the NHS.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The investigation from the NAO revealed several lessons around cybersecurity not just for the NHS, but for similarly large public sector organisations. If lessons from the WannaCry incident are not taken on board then we could see other severe cyber attacks strike the NHS and other public sector organisations in the future.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Firstly, cyber preparedness needs to be sufficiently prioritised. The NAO report states that a year before the WannaCry attack, the NHS and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/department-of-health\">Department of Health<\/a>\u00a0had been warned by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/national-data-guardian\">National Data Guardian<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cqc.org.uk\/\">Care Quality Commission<\/a>\u00a0(CQC) about the risks of cyber attacks and the need to respond to them. A big part of cyber preparedness is making sure cybersecurity is sufficiently prioritised financially in order to deal with the range of threats.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Secondly, there needs to be more awareness of the risks and potential consequences from cyber attacks. In the lead-up to the WannaCry attack,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/digital.nhs.uk\/\">NHS Digital<\/a>\u00a0found that many trusts had failed to identify cybersecurity as a risk to patients or care outcomes and that trusts tended to overestimate their ability to respond to cyber incidents.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thirdly, the central coordination and preparation to deal with cyber attacks need to be translated into local resilience. The NAO report noted that the NHS centrally and the Department of Health were relatively prepared for a severe attack, but local trusts and bodies were not.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was also confusion about the roles in dealing with cyber attacks at a local level.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/improvement.nhs.uk\/\">NHS Improvement<\/a>\u00a0and the CQC can mandate local NHS bodies to improve their performance, but neither is primarily concerned with cybersecurity or IT. In contrast, NHS Digital provides cybersecurity advice and guidance, but cannot mandate local action, even in the presence of a confirmed vulnerability or threat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finally, effective crisis communication processes need to be in place. The absence of clear processes amplified the impact of the WannaCry attack, with different local NHS bodies reporting the attack to different authorities including the police, NHS England, NHS Digital, and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsc.gov.uk\/\">National Cybersecurity Centre<\/a>. The NAO report notes that this made it difficult to understand the full scope of the attack, and also resulted in patients receiving, in some instances, contradictory information from multiple sources, which added to the confusion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The NHS has accepted that there are lessons to learn from WannaCry and is in the process of taking further action to address the risks from further cyber attacks. The good news is that the attack could have been worse, which is recognised within the NAO report. However, the same report also states that a similar attack is likely in the future.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, the WannaCry attack acts as a warning for the NHS and other public sector organisations that their cybersecurity processes need to be improved and fast before a more severe cyber attack takes place. The solutions to deal with the cyber attacks are relatively straightforward. The challenge will come from implementing these solutions within the complex web that the NHS and other public sector organisations comprise.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Erik Silfversten<\/strong> is an analyst at RAND Europe whose specialist area is cybersecurity. The op-ed is based on analysis that originally appeared on the\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/connectedobservatory.org\/\"><em>Observatory for a Connected Society<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong> None declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NHS and other public sector organisations need to improve their cybersecurity processes\u2014and fast [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The NHS and other public sector organisations need to improve their cybersecurity processes\u2014and fast [...]More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-01T13:59:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-08T12:09:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2017\/12\/cyber_attack.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-01T13:59:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-08T12:09:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":696,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/cyber_attack.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"NHS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/\",\"name\":\"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action - The BMJ\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/cyber_attack.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-01T13:59:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-08T12:09:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/cyber_attack.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/cyber_attack.jpg\",\"width\":540,\"height\":350},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/01\\\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/\",\"name\":\"The BMJ\",\"description\":\"Helping doctors make better decisions.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The BMJ\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg\",\"width\":852,\"height\":568,\"caption\":\"The BMJ\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/bmjdotcom\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/bmj_latest\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\",\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"BMJ\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action - The BMJ","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action - The BMJ","og_description":"The NHS and other public sector organisations need to improve their cybersecurity processes\u2014and fast [...]More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/","og_site_name":"The BMJ","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/","article_published_time":"2017-12-01T13:59:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-12-08T12:09:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":540,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2017\/12\/cyber_attack.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"BMJ","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bmj_latest","twitter_site":"@bmj_latest","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"BMJ","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/"},"author":{"name":"BMJ","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe"},"headline":"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action","datePublished":"2017-12-01T13:59:44+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-08T12:09:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/"},"wordCount":696,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2017\/12\/cyber_attack.jpg","articleSection":["NHS"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/","name":"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action - The BMJ","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2017\/12\/cyber_attack.jpg","datePublished":"2017-12-01T13:59:44+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-08T12:09:43+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2017\/12\/cyber_attack.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2017\/12\/cyber_attack.jpg","width":540,"height":350},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/12\/01\/erik-silfversten-why-the-wannacry-cyber-attack-could-be-the-first-of-many-if-the-nhs-does-not-take-action\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Erik Silfversten: The WannaCry cyber attack could be the first of many if the NHS takes no action"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/","name":"The BMJ","description":"Helping doctors make better decisions.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#organization","name":"The BMJ","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/05\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/05\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg","width":852,"height":568,"caption":"The BMJ"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/","https:\/\/x.com\/bmj_latest"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe","name":"BMJ","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"BMJ"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}