International cyber attack — NHS Orkney update

NHS Orkney chief executive Cathie Cowan has asked staff to remain vigilant after a cyber-attack on Friday targeted organisations around the world.

The computer virus, which hit Microsoft Windows systems, has disrupted 61 NHS organisations throughout the UK.

Although NHS Orkney computers have not been affected, Ms Cowan said her team had been in regular contact with Scottish Government, Police Scotland and Microsoft, and were following their advice to deal with the outbreak.

She asked all staff returning to work today, Monday, to be extremely vigilant.

In thanking NHS Orkney IT staff Ms Cowan confirmed that the team had worked hard over the weekend to implement additional measures to minimise the threat.

However, she added that staff need to continue to play their part to protect the IT systems in order to provide an ongoing safe clinical environment.

Ms Cowan said: “I want to remind all staff of the need to be vigilant when opening and responding to emails, and in particular the correct course of action to be taken if you receive any suspicious emails.

“Suspicious emails can come from known contacts and may even be from what appears to be a NHS mail address.

“These emails typically ask you to click on a hyperlink to download a file. These emails are almost certainly malware and should be permanently deleted from your inbox or junk items immediately.

“Please do not click on any links or forward these emails to anyone else.”

Ms Cowan told staff at the organisation: “My priority is to protect the clinical environment and steps to safeguard this may result in you having limited access to IT.

“Your cooperation and continued vigilance is appreciated while we take ongoing measures to mitigate against this significant risk.”

Ms Cowan added that all NHS services for patients would be operating as normal.