Tories cut security support for antiquated Computer systems?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tories-cut-security-support-outdated-10413160

So, along with nurses being capped at 1% pay rises forcing some into foodbanks, our most sensitive data is also at risk because of austerity!

The National Debt has risen 70% under the Tory Government - from £960 billions to £1.7 trillion.

I don't think the Tories are directly to blame (I can't imagine Jeremy Hunt made the decision not to extend maintenance) - but the lack of funding for the NHS is certainly forcing it to make risky choices that affect each and every one of us.

I wondered how long it would take before someone or some political party would try to make political gain out of the recent cyber-attacks.

Shame on them.

As I say, I don't think we can directly blame the Government. But, it is a fact that the Red Cross called the winter A&E problems a "humanitarian Crisis". The NHS is underfunded, it is being run down and some speculate that it is being run down for a specific purpose (that being privatisation).

This is the latest in a long run of bad news stories involving the NHS.

Further, remember I mentioned to you about the Snooper's Charter? Are you still confident that Government Agencies can protect your data?

For many years there have been stories about the NHS and privatisation, I doubt very much it will ever happen, the NHS cuts through all political barriers and will be protected by all.

For example, if the Tories stated in their General Election manifesto that they were going to privatise the NHS do you think they would win the election?

Why do you think they would publicise it? The system is being run down. The NHS was in good health quite recently. The Tories are quick to blame Labour for any failure in Wales, they should also be willing to accept that some of their policies are to blame for the failings in England.

Does this mean that people will know about my dodgy knee? Shame on you you naughty Tories.

No, what I am saying is that - because of Theresa May's Snoopers Charter, 48 agencies are allowed to view and record anyone's internet browsing history. Agencies such as the NHS who are running XP and can easily be broken into.

People think that the Snooper's Charter is there to catch criminals and terrorists - that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. What about if an unscrupulous criminal gang managed to get the details? Does yesterday's news give those who think the snooper's charter is harmless still have that confidence?

Also, what about if there is data theft? Your dodgy knee is trivial, but someone diagnosed with terminal cancer suddenly getting calls with miracle cures that cost just a few grand? It happens in America (where the information is sold onto such companies), can the NHS protect that data? It's going to cost money to protect it, who's going to pay?

To be honest you would have to wrap every individual up in cotton wool to protect from risk, the world as I am sure you know isn't like that.
Life is a risk it's limiting those risks that is necessary.
It's very easy to politicise any occurrence with a slant to ones own political leaning coming up with an agenda to prevent or repair isn't so easy. Equally one cannot throw good money after bad on a broken system a line has
s to been drawn.

It shows pretty poor taste to try to make political capital out of an event such as this. No one person or group of people is responsible. But, hey, if it floats a Corbynista boat ...

Good post just comment on one point , why do we all need letters to remind of appointment s they cost money we are there when the appointment is made! A text once set up is probably computer system driven and costs less than a letter if anything at all.

Until sometime last year, Microsoft had an ongoing support contract with the NHS worth £5.5million a year but contrary to the OP's assertion, I've seen no evidence to support his belief that the government was the party that cancelled the contract. It could equally have been Microsoft since such a contract does, to an extent, undermine its operating system business model which is to get users to pay real money for a new version every few years. In reality, the only major thing that changes with each new version is the user interface, certain aspects of the (32 bit) kernel have been around since the first releases of Windows NT, albeit they have been refined over the years. I think its quite likely that many/most/all the affected PCs did not have any anti-virus programs installed which would have detected and dealt with this virus. A product such as Avira which provides real-time protection would have cost less than a fiver per PC given the large numbers of machines to be licensed. And for that, each Trust's IT support team must take the blame.

At least the NHS is still treating patients; Telefonica, Spain's largest telecoms provider, is apparently completely off-air.

This was not a virus attack, it was seemingly a very specialised piece of malware developed by the NSA (US National Security Agency), and stolen by the hackers. My understanding is that a standard virus checker would not provide defence against this.

As for the Microsoft / NHS support contract being terminated, that seems irrelevant to this incident. The supported systems were Windows XP, and Microsoft had not produced a patch for that operating system, I believe that one may just have been released in the past few hours.

Still not certain how this spread, did it self replicate over the network, or did each PC user click on an e-mail attachment?

No, I was referring to the topic's title but as far as the Mirror article is concerned, I'm keeping an open mind but I suspect that the Mirror is using this as another club to bash Jeremty Hunt with.

I use that same combination and agree that Avira has become a bit of a resource hog in recent years. I used to use F-Prot written by an Icelandic researcher, Fredrik Skulason.

Tim - the NHS is de facto being privatised - agency / bank staff everywhere / Servo / Sodehexo running many ancillary services - remember the main reason a few years ago for increasing deaths from MRSA / C Diff - following privatisation of ward cleaning / PFI capital investment on the never never.

The jewel in the social fabric of our nation is being wilfully and chronically underfunded - by the Party who cuts corporation tax and tax breaks for the wealthy. I guess those high earners won't care - they'll be ok on their private health insurance policies.

Who's been Tory health secretary for past few years? Oh yes - Jeremy Hunt - the same Jeremy Hunt who in 2005 wrote a pamphlet calling for the NHS to be replaced by private insurance. And just look how successful that is in Trumpland.

I wish I had your confidence Timmers but for some reason I'm reminded of the saying about Dracula and bloodbank.

Gerry