NHS workers. Flickr/Emanueletudisco photography. Some rights reservedOn Friday IT systems in Britain and across the world were hit by a devastating hacking attack.
Dubbed 'WannaCrypt' - it locked users out of their computer system unless they paid a $300 ransom using Bitcoin. Such 'ransomware' attacks have become increasingly common across cyberspace as an earner for hackers.
There is little doubt ensuring government IT systems, especially in critical areas such as the NHS, need to be kept up-to-date. Most of the media attention has largely focused on this area since. In particular, the health secretary Jeremy Hunt has been criticised for ignoring repeated warnings that NHS IT systems were underfunded and vulnerable.
