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Earlier this month, the ransomware group known as Qilin poached sensitive data from an NHS blood test provider and threatened to publish it if the company didn’t pay a reported £40m ransom. It didn’t, and last Friday, the Russian-speaking group published almost 400GB of private information on Telegram and its own darknet site, including results of blood tests for HIV and cancer, patient names and business accounts. The healthcare sector has become an increasingly popular target for cyber criminals since United Health Group, a US-based multinational, reportedly paid a $22m ransom earlier this year. The initial Qilin hack caused the cancellation of more than 3,000 hospital and GP appointments, and patients should expect more like it. By one estimate 30 per cent of the world's data generated by the healthcare industry, set to grow by 36 per cent by 2025.
