UK hospitals gain control in ransom hack

LONDON: Most UK health facilities whose computer systems were crippled in a global cyberattack are back to normal operation, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said, even as experts warned that hackers would probably launch a new round of attacks with many computers still vulnerable.

About 97 per cent of facilities and doctors affected are able to work normally, Rudd said Saturday after a UK government meeting. At the height of the attack on Friday and early Saturday, 48 organisations in the National Health Service were affected, and hospitals in London, North West England and Central England urged people with non-emergency conditions to stay away as technicians tried to stop the spread of the malicious software.

“There will be lessons to learn from what appears to be the biggest criminal cyber-attack in history,” Rudd said. The malware also affected Russia’s Ministry of Interior, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn rail system, automakers Nissan Motor Co and Renault SA, logistics giant FedEx Corp, and other company and hospital computer systems in countries from Eastern Europe to the US and Asia.