Security meltdown: London hospitals highlight the need to protect systems

This week, security threats have dominated the digital headlines. The need for digital security was made particularly apparent by a “major incident” at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and the London NHS Trust caused by a particularly effective virus. On Monday afternoon, the virus was discovered, after it caused a large volume of messages to be sent through the trust’s system and overloading its system.

For two days, the virus went on wreaking havoc at St Bart’s, home of London’s air ambulance and England’s largest heart attack care centre, as well as affecting the Royal London and London Chest hospitals. A spokesman from St Bart’s said that the source of the virus was as of yet unknown, and that the system was being brought back up speed gradually. While MRSA is causing the health service grief it seems the digital virus has taken over as the most debilitating factor for the health service.

The news of St Bart’s viral meltdown comes after a study by security firm Webroot, which highlights some alarming attitudes to internet security amongst companies in the UK. According to the study, 25% of companies participating had experienced a web-based threat in 2007, which caused server outage, compromise sensitive information or threatened online transactions. Despite these problems, 25% of companies still underestimated the risk from hackers and viruses. As with software licenses, reported on this blog last week, it would appear that there is a lack of awareness about online security amongst the UK’s businesses and other organisations.

Perhaps appropriately, the computing security market has been rather active in the past few weeks. The biggest deal announced this week was McAfee’s acquisition of Secure Computing. The new deal, worth $462 million, will bring to McAfee Secure Computing’s 22,000 customers from 106 countries, furthering and deepening the global reach of its services. The acquisition will bring together two of the best-placed companies to tackle online security threats.

Secure Computing president and CEO Dan Ryan will now lead McAfee’s Network Security product business unit, reporting to McAfee’s CEO and president Dave DeWalt. Mr DeWalt said: "McAfee's goal is to provide intelligent security that protects from every angle, including the endpoint, the network and all points in between." He added that the takeover will enable McAfee to combine its end-point security and network intrusion prevention technology with Secure Computing's web and email security capabilities.

Here at Calsoft, we know that poor software management, lack of awareness of software licensing and a ineffective communications within IT systems can leave businesses and organisations open to security threats. Good SOA, coupled with anti-virus software can help protect your system from hackers, theft and viruses.