Health board unscathed following global cyber attack

NHS Shetland appears to have been one of only three health boards in Scotland to have been unaffected by a worldwide cyber attack on Friday.

The “ransomware” attack is estimated by security researchers to have affected 100 countries, with 45,000 individual attacks, and has caused a major headache for many hospitals across the UK.

NHS Shetland, NHS Orkney and NHS Lothian are the only three of Scotland’s 14 health boards not among the victims of what experts are describing as a “scattershot” attack by computer hackers involving a “relatively small” ransom demand.

Health board chief executive Ralph Roberts on Monday offered a public assurance that there has been “no direct impact on our IT systems”.

“This means there has been no loss of personal data, nor are there any changes to planned clinical services,” he said.

“I would like to acknowledge our IT staff who have worked hard over the weekend to ensure our systems remain appropriately protected.

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“We also have a number of contingency arrangements in place to help keep systems safe. These should not impact on service users in any way, however if anyone does experience any disruption we would ask for them to bear with us as we continue to work through the security measures.”

He added: “We will provide a public update should the situation change.”