Cybersecurity stocks boom in wake of ransomware attack

The ransomware attack that disrupted the NHS and businesses around the world has led to a boom in share prices of cybersecurity companies – including the firm used by the health service to protect it against hackers.

With governments and companies expected to increase spending on IT security after being caught out by the attack, cybersecurity firms have seen their stock market values climb sharply over the past two days.

Sophos, a cloud network security specialist which counts the NHS among its clients, has seen its shares jump 8%. Over the weekend, a claim on the company’s website that “the NHS is totally protected with Sophos” was changed to “Sophos understands the security needs of the NHS”. Last week, Sophos tweeted its “top five tips for securing NHS organisations”. But its shares have been performing well over recent months because of the increased need for cyber defences.

Meanwhile, NCC group added 5% to its share valuation and cyber consultancy group ECSC surged 42%. ISE, a fund invested in cybersecurity businesses, added nearly 4%.

The surge has been put down to the attacks refocusing businesses on the need for adequate cybersecurity. “Significant increases in public sector cyber defence spending [are] now looking inevitable,” said Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “[Sophos] already provides services to the healthcare industry and will be looking to increase selling to the sector in the aftermath of the attack.”

US firms have also benefited, with FireEye’s prices rising 7%, Symantec up more than 3% and Palo Alto Networks 2.7% better. Neil Campling, head of technology research at financial services firm Northern Trust, told Reuters: “These attacks help focus the minds of chief technology officers across corporations to make sure security protocols are up to date, and you often see bookings growth at cybersecurity companies as a result.”

It was also suggested that the success of the WannaCry hack could make other attacks more likely in the future amid doubts over governments’ ability to secure “cyberweapons” from theft.

“The attacks raise significant questions about whether or not countries that are developing and stockpiling cyberweapons can do more to protect those tools from being stolen and turned against their own population,” said Thomas Fitzgerald, associate fund manager at EdenTree Investment Management. “The WannaCry attack is likely to be a catalyst for more of these types of cyber-attacks from copycat criminal organisations.”

The effects of the attack continued to be felt on Tuesday, although one of the seven NHS trusts which had still been experiencing serious problems on Monday, James Paget university hospitals trust in Norfolk, said that all of its operations and appointments were going ahead as scheduled.

Elsewhere the disruption continued. East and North Hertfordshire trust advised people to only go to A&E if absolutely essential.

Southport and Ormskirk hospital said it was continuing to experience difficulties with its clinical information systems but insisted that patient safety was being maintained. It advised all patients scheduled for surgery on Tuesday not to attend unless contacted and said all outpatients and endoscopy appointments were cancelled.

Barts health NHS trust said it was no longer diverting ambulances from its hospitals but was still experiencing delays and disruption. York teaching hospital NHS trust said bone scans at Scarborough hospital were not going ahead on Tuesday and that breast screening clinics in some areas had been cancelled. A number of affected trusts asked patients not to contact them by email because of ongoing IT problems.

NHS Digital said none of its services had been affected by the attack.

Cybersecurity stocks boom in wake of ransomware attack

My cancer diary: ‘That was a hell of a wake – I hope I’ll remember it for years’

Tuesday 15 November

After four days of in-patient treatment – intensive rehydration, intravenous antibiotics and two units of blood, not to mention so many blood tests that “find the vein” became an almost full-time staff pastime – I’m feeling much better. So now back at the Royal Marsden [specialist cancer treatment hospital] for blood tests ahead of what I hope will be more chemotherapy treatment on Thursday.

And good news! Blood pressure’s up and stable; platelets and white blood cells all well within safe range – so all clear for treatment. This is quite a relief, and I’m sure I’m not the only cancer patient – or physician, for that matter – who feels this, but having to miss treatments is frustrating and a bit of a worry. The fear being that as treatments are skipped, the cancer and its offshoots will regain ground, thus making them harder to treat further down the line. Anyhow, none of that this week!

Thursday 17 November

Having missed a week of treatment, whereas this should’ve been a double drug week – paclitaxel on the NHS, and ramucirumab up in the private patients’ “suite” – in fact, as we’re in what is in effect now week two in the cycle, it’s NHS paclitaxel only.

Infusion goes well – once they’d found a vein for the cannula (the rather clever device through which infusions are delivered into veins). With the cold cap applied I still live in hope that I won’t lose my hair. And what a relief to have actually got another round of treatment!

Friday 18 November

In Manchester today for an appearance on BBC Breakfast’s sofa at an outside broadcast they’re doing to mark the end of a series of reports on cancer – one of which, as I think I mentioned before, featured me and a conversation with my old friend Nick Robinson about how to discuss cancer with family, friends and the world beyond. The programme came from the Maggie’s centre at the Christie hospital. Maggie’s centres are there for people with cancer – and others affected by it: carers, family, friends etc – to drop in for help, advice or just a chat.

It was heartening to meet other people living with cancer – and a great coming-together moment when the presenter tried to tell three of us we had “terminal” cancer, which was met with a good humoured but unanimous raspberry. The only certainties in life are, as they say, death and taxes, and so it is when you’ve got cancer. I might have weeks, months, years or even a full lifespan ahead of me. I know I’ve got advanced cancer and well recognise that changes the odds considerably – but I’m not out yet and neither were any of my fellow contributors.

I was asked one question, though, which really made me think. Why had I decided to be so public about my cancer? Which as I sat in the Maggie’s centre did make me think about how privileged my position is compared with so many others with cancer diagnoses.

First, I’m a journalist and so have a way of approaching my own disease which interests and engages me as a story in its own right and – as any journalist will attest – once you’ve got a story, the urge to tell it is almost irresistible. Second, I have access to ways of telling it both on the radio and in print. And third, I’m not 35 and still building a career or in the dating game or running my own business where I’m the key business winner. Who would want to tell a prospective boss or date or client about a diagnosis like mine? Nor am I facing a relationship breakdown by revealing all – you don’t exactly make yourself an investment by telling people you’ve got cancer.

For me, by contrast, there is virtually no downside. I suppose what I’ve realised is that for many people, that’s just not the case. So there is a long way to go in terms of society in general coming to terms with the realities of cancer – after all, Cancer Research statistics suggest that one in two of us will get it at some point in our lives.

Tuesday 22 November

Back to the Marsden today for blood tests ahead of treatment on Thursday – I hope! I’ve been feeling generally OK, although pesky kidney stones have been back. Unfortunately, the tests show that my platelet count has dropped again and so has the level of the white blood cells – critically important to fighting infections.

My consultant, Dr Starling, appears even more fed up and disappointed than me, especially because there are some very early signs – no symptoms from the main tumour at all, improved liver function and other markers showing positive – that might suggest the new regime is working on the cancer. Trouble is, it might also be rendering me unable to safely receive it. Consultant wondering – but really hoping not – whether I might be in the 2% of people (yes, 2%) to whom the drug paclitaxel appears to do this. Naturally I am with her on this!

So treatment on Thursday now looking unlikely. More self-injections to promote white blood cell production prescribed, and more blood tests (we really are running out of veins) booked for early Thursday morning …

Wednesday 23 November

Up at 6.15 to prepare for The Media Show. But, to be honest, the kidney stones are killing me, the medication can make one a bit dopey, and I’m feeling pretty fatigued. So 7am speak to producer, who takes the news brilliantly well and sets out to find a stand-in presenter. I always feel bad doing this but BBC Radio has been really brilliant about it, and I guess if I did present a programme and made a hash of it I’d feel quite a lot worse.

Thursday 24 November

Back at the Marsden. Blood results not great so definitely no treatment today. Another date missed and more of the frustration and underlying issues to worry about. But a platelet infusion later and it’s onwards and upwards!

Friday 25 November

Months ago I agreed to a request from the Media Society – and the London Press Club and the Royal Television Society – to consider participating in an evening looking at my career. Flattering and hard to turn down in many ways but weirdly like an invitation to my own wake. With the help of BBC Radio they managed to get the historic Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House, home to so many BBC comedies and performances. And the event is tonight!

It is framed as an interview between me and Roger Bolton, presenter of Radio 4’s Feedback but a TV executive of many, many years’ experience who once upon a time as editor of Nationwide gave me my first proper job in telly. Well, 300 guests and a packed Radio Theatre beckoned – and, I should say, with every likelihood of a £2,000-plus donation to the Marsden charity. But what had I let myself in for?

Back at the Marsden again, the platelet count had improved but there was no significant movement on the white blood cells and the amazing Dr Starling was actively worrying about whether I should even do the Radio Theatre event. Ultimately she relents, and with a very strict set of instructions – get a cab there and back, stay away from anybody with a cough or cold, and if you get a temperature or even feel just really off, call the emergency helpline immediately – gives me her blessing.

Audience reaction was truly amazing and utterly humbling. As wakes go, it’ll be one to remember – which I trust I will for many years to come!

To donate to Maggie’s centres, visit maggiescentres.org

My cancer diary: ‘That was a hell of a wake – I hope I’ll remember it for years’

Theresa May must wake up to the crisis facing the NHS

Theresa May has told Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, that the health service will get no extra money, despite rapidly escalating problems that have led to warnings from the British Medical Association that hospitals are close to breaking point.

The NHS is now at a more pivotal stage than it has ever been since I became a GP more than 30 years ago. The financial squeeze on health services will get much tighter over the next five years, with spending per person on the NHS falling by 9% (pdf).

In 2014, the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicted that even if the NHS budget remained protected from cuts, the growth in population would lead to big real terms cuts. The myth that the NHS budget is protected is over. Even if health spending continued to rise with inflation, as it has since 2010, age-adjusted spending per person would be 9% lower in 2018 (pdf) than in 2010. On top of this, Jeremy Hunt wants the NHS to save £22bn by 2020.

These “efficiency savings” are unfeasible and dangerous and will push an NHS already teetering on the brink right over the cliff edge.If Hunt wants to save money, abolishing wasteful internal/external health markets and renegotiating private finance initiatives would be a good start.

The NHS has not faced this level of challenge in its history. The universal care it provides is in danger of becoming unsustainable. The dire prospect is that the NHS will have to ration treatment, shut hospital units, close GP surgeries and cut staff if it gets no extra money soon.

Already, one in five patients are waiting a week or more to see their GP, or not getting an appointment at all, and thousands of patients wait hours in A&E and on hospital trolleys. The answer to the funding crisis would be a firm commitment to get funding levels back to the EU average on health spending. The prime minister might say it depends on a strong economy, but I would say it depends on your commitment to the NHS.

By reappointing Hunt as health secretary, May has signalled that she endorses the imposition of an unsafe junior doctors’ contract, an unaffordable seven-day service, rock bottom staff morale, a decline in general practice and the ideologically driven privatisation of the NHS.

Meanwhile, May is the architect of the minimum salary for immigrants who have lived in the UK for less than 10 years (the threshold is at least £35,000), if they want to continue to stay. The points-based immigration system she advocates would mean the low-skilled migrant workers who form the backbone of the care sector would be denied entry to Britain.

This would hugely impact on the recruitment of nurses and para-medical staff in the NHS. If she means what she says, that she loves the NHS, May needs to wake up to the crisis in the NHS. A failing NHS will only help to boost private healthcare insurance for those who can afford it, signalling the death knell for a universal healthcare service, free at the point of use.

But, this is perhaps what she wants. Praise poured from the prime minister in her speech to Tory party conference in Birmingham – bidding to be “the party of the NHS”. But as she showed no sign of confronting the health service crisis, in practice she is undermining it.

The gap between policy rhetoric and reality has never been starker. The British public deserves nothing less than a well-financed and functional health service with happy and productive staff. I call on Theresa May to provide immediate clarity on the fiscal health of the NHS.

Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.

Theresa May must wake up to the crisis facing the NHS

My son died in an NHS residential unit. Every day I wake to the discomfort | Sara Ryan

Connor Sparrowhawk drowned in the bath at Slade Home assessment unit in July 2013. Photograph: Sara Ryan

If LB (Connor’s nickname was Laughing Boy) hadn’t been understanding disabled, his death would have provoked instantaneous outrage and engagement. We’ve lost count of how many “atrocity stories” considering that LB died have been headline news. We’ve fought like fucking billy-o to get accountability. We managed to get an independent investigation into his death commissioned and, with a battle, published. A report that categorically states that LB need to not have died.

LB must not have drowned in a bath in a hospital. In a unit with four “professional” employees and 5 sufferers. He was diagnosed with epilepsy. He had documented escalating seizure activity as a consequence of the medication adjust imposed by the clinician accountable for him. It was recorded that he was sensitive to medication modify. We told them he was getting seizures when he was in there. Information they chose to dispute.

Why would you dispute seizure exercise in somebody diagnosed with epilepsy, delicate to medicine change, when their family flag up seizure exercise? In which in the fucking curriculum/on the work knowledge does stamping out any sniff of a acknowledged danger feature?

At the very least the appropriate bodies have to have collectively swooped in and sorted issues out. A young man drowning in the bath in a specialist unit? Blimey. At least they must have supported the loved ones in every single way feasible. The a variety of bodies should have chucked in almost everything possible to ease the intense ache this family members have skilled. Yeah.

If LB hadn’t died, the same past-shite provision would be in place. No a single (other than the constantly and successfully sidelined, excluded and silenced households) would be any the wiser. Our son died. Each and every single day I go to bed considering about this. Every single day I wake to the soreness of remembering it. A continuous ache that varies from sheer agony to a boring ache of extreme sadness (on a “very good” day).

In amid the good assistance for #justiceforLB on Twitter, a clinician got embroiled in a protracted debate close to mortality and studying disabled individuals. Doc Anon’s level seemed to be that studying disabled individuals die earlier anyway. If you anticipate particular “types” of men and women not to reside as long as other, a lot more valued, “mainstream” individuals, it gets simpler to sweep the former beneath the “let us not bother with” carpet.

And our dude (along with probably countless other folks) was swept into this room final July.

These are edited extracts from Sara Ryan’s mydaftlife weblog

My son died in an NHS residential unit. Every day I wake to the discomfort | Sara Ryan

Woman breaks eight bones in sleepwalking fall and still does not wake up

In spite of her comprehensive injuries she only spent ten days in the significant trauma unit at the Queen’s Health care Centre in Nottingham and hopes to be back at perform inside of two months.

Morgan has now set up infant gates on the stairs of her property in Witham-St-Hughes, Lincs, to stop a repeat of the accident.

The client companies assistant stated: “When they located me I was bleeding a lot and my pal who used to be a nurse considered I was dead.

“The ambulance acquired to me and took me to the major trauma unit and later that afternoon the medical professionals said that they did not know how I was not in intensive care.

“It was a week ahead of I looked at myself in the mirror simply because my encounter was such a mess, I just couldn’t bring myself to it.

“Now, when I do appear at myself I feel lucky to be alive and even luckier to be strolling. It is a miracle I did not die.

“I have sleepwalked prior to but normally I just wander around and then go back to bed, but since I was at a friend’s house it was unfamiliar and I fell.”

Morag was staying with her good friend Carl Muggleton in Prolonged Eaton, Notts, when he was roused by a loud noise at 5am on November 23 last year.

The 39-yr-old said: “I woke up to an almighty crash and jumped out of bed and noticed her lying at the bottom of the stairs in a pool of blood.

“I knew that she did sleep stroll but by no means anticipated something like this.

“I tried to stem the bleeding until the ambulance arrived and it was not until finally it came that I observed 1 of her wrists had spun all the way all around.

“I have a extremely sharp set of stairs and there is not a lot of area at the bottom so she is fortunate to be with us nowadays.”

Morag, who lives with her 6-12 months-old daughter Olivia in Lincolnshire, has sleepwalked all her daily life and explained it generally transpires when she is stressed.

She additional: “My daughter has been a superstar during all of this and if anything at all she is mothering me.

“I am nevertheless sporting a brace for my back and she helps me with it. She even explained that I seem like a mummy yet again and not a zombie.

“I have now put stair gates in to maintain my home secure.”

Rohan Revell, major trauma situation manager at the Queen’s Healthcare Centre, stated: “We can only presume that she went head-in excess of-heels as an alternative of down on her bum and a good deal of fatalities happen this way.

“When she came in she looked like she had gone ten rounds with an individual.

“We gave her an epidural to address her ache and the spinal damage she had. She nevertheless has to put on a back brace like a corset to defend the spine while it heals.

“She was an absolutely beautiful patient and the most rewarding thing for us is that she has been back to pay a visit to us all.”

An estimated ten million men and women in Britain suffer from sleepwalking.

Woman breaks eight bones in sleepwalking fall and still does not wake up

Woman breaks eight bones in a sleepwalking fall and nevertheless does not wake up

Morgan has now put in child gates on the stairs of her home in Witham-St-Hughes, Lincs, to stop a repeat of the accident.

The client providers assistant explained: “When they identified me I was bleeding a lot and my pal who utilised to be a nurse considered I was dead.

“The ambulance got to me and took me to the major trauma unit and later that afternoon the doctors stated that they did not know how I wasn’t in intensive care.

“It was a week ahead of I looked at myself in the mirror because my face was such a mess, I just couldn’t carry myself to it.

“Now, when I do appear at myself I feel fortunate to be alive and even luckier to be walking. It’s a miracle I didn’t die.

“I have sleepwalked ahead of but generally I just wander about and then go back to bed, but due to the fact I was at a friend’s property it was unfamiliar and I fell.”

Morag was staying with her buddy Carl Muggleton in Extended Eaton, Notts, when he was roused by a loud noise at 5am on November 23 last yr.

The 39-year-previous stated: “I woke up to an almighty crash and jumped out of bed and noticed her lying at the bottom of the stairs in a pool of blood.

“I knew that she did sleep stroll but never expected something like this.

“I experimented with to stem the bleeding till the ambulance arrived and it wasn’t until finally it came that I observed a single of her wrists had spun all the way all around.

“I have a quite sharp set of stairs and there is not a great deal of room at the bottom so she is lucky to be with us today.”

Morag, who lives with her six-12 months-previous daughter Olivia in Lincolnshire, has sleepwalked all her life and explained it normally occurs when she is stressed.

She added: “My daughter has been a superstar throughout all of this and if anything at all she is mothering me.

“I am even now wearing a brace for my back and she helps me with it. She even stated that I seem like a mummy again and not a zombie.

“I have now put stair gates in to preserve my residence safe.”

Rohan Revell, major trauma situation manager at the Queen’s Medical Centre, explained: “We can only presume that she went head-over-heels alternatively of down on her bum and a good deal of fatalities happen this way.

“When she came in she looked like she had gone ten rounds with somebody.

“We gave her an epidural to handle her soreness and the spinal damage she had. She nonetheless has to dress in a back brace like a corset to shield the spine even though it heals.

“She was an definitely pretty patient and the most rewarding factor for us is that she has been back to pay a visit to us all.”

An estimated 10 million individuals in Britain suffer from sleepwalking.

Woman breaks eight bones in a sleepwalking fall and nevertheless does not wake up