The Know Daily - Wednesday 12 June 2024

_{Read in 5m 47s ∙ Listening to Charli xcx ∙}

🛜 Cyber security | 😵‍💫 War of the Wordle | 🌶️ Too spicy 

Wild horses have returned to their native Kazakhstan after a two-century absence. Seven horses were flown in from zoos in Europe, and conservationists hope the magnificent creatures will soon be thriving once again in Kazakhstan's vast steppe grasslands. The news is especially cool as Przewalski’s horses (as they are officially known) are the only truly wild species of the animal remaining in the world 🐴

🛜 Cyber security

A cyber attack has caused significant disruption for several London hospitals, amid an uptick in ransomware incidents.

What’s the story?
Last Monday, hospitals in London were hit by a ransomware attack, which is a type of cyber crime that prevents users from accessing their systems until a fee is paid. The attack - believed to be by the Russian group Qilin - targeted the IT system of Synnovis, a private firm which analyses blood tests. 

Synnovis still doesn’t have control over its system, which means that affected hospitals can’t match patients’ blood as quickly. As a result, operations have been cancelled at several hospitals with patients diverted to other practices, reported the BBC. It’s unclear how long it’ll take to get everything up and running again, but it could be several months, a senior NHS source told The Guardian.

And an important PSA: as a result of the incident, an appeal has been launched for O-type donors to give blood across the country - here’s how to get involved.

Has this kind of thing happened before?
Yep. In 2017, a computer virus known as WannaCry infected over a third of NHS practices in England, as well as other organisations around the world. Since then, the NHS has invested in addressing key cyber security weaknesses, setting up a central security response team that will provide ‘boots on the ground’ support to investigate and recover from cyber incidents.

What’s the bigger picture?
Ransomware is the “defining cybercrime of the past decade”, according to Wired. 2023 was a record-breaking year for these incidents, and reports suggest they’re only going to become more common. Other major ransomware incidents to hit the headlines in recent months include an attack on auction house Christie’s, which resulted in a data breach of 45,000 people.

But authorities are making headway on tackling ransomware. Last month, the EU’s police agencies launched the largest international operation ever, resulting in the takedown of 100 servers and over 2,000 internet domains involved in this type of cybercrime.