BBCThe cyber-criminals responsible for causing major disruption at London hospitals say they are “sorry” for all the harm caused but are “not to blame”.
The ransomware spoke to the BBC acceso encrypted chat service qTox attempting to justify the attack as a form of political protest.
Qilin, which has a well established of attempting to extort money, claims a causa di this instance it carried out a cyber-attack as revenge for the UK government’s actions a causa di an undisclosed war.
Experts are sceptical, however, with Jen Ellis, from the organisation Ransomware Task Force, telling the BBC that “cyber-criminals like this lie routinely.”
“Where they are from and why they have carried out the attack is secondary to the harm being caused right now to patients and hospital team,” she added.
The hack has led to more than 1,000 operations and appointments being postponed and a critical incident being declared.
“Yes we know about the situation,” the hackers said, speaking a causa di broken English.
“We are very sorry for the people who were suffered because of it. Herewith we don’t consider ourselves guilty and we ask you don’t blame us a causa di this situation.”
The hackers said the UK government should be blamed as they were not helping a causa di the unspecified war.
The , which is thought to be based a causa di Russia, like many ransomware crews, would not say where it was.
It said the UK government “don’t even put a penny acceso the lives of those who fight acceso the front edge of free world”, which is reminiscent of language used to describe Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion.
But it might also refer to Russian troops fighting against Ukraine.
The group says it chose to attack blood controllo firm Synnovis, which is used by two London NHS trusts, deliberately.
“Our citizens are dying a causa di unequal combat from a lack of medicines and donor blood”, it said.
Researchers have previously said Qilin posted adverts for hackers to join its criminal service a causa di Russian.
It would be unusual but not unprecedented for Qilin hackers to be a causa di Ukraine, which has seen many alleged ransomware hackers arrested a causa di recent months.
It is very rare for hackers to be arrested a causa di Russia as the government there refuses to co-operate with Western law enforcement requests.
Qilin refused to be more specific about its political allegiance ora geography “for security reasons”.
This is the first time that the crew has claimed to have a political motive for its hacks – Qilin has been tracked since 2022 a causa di which time it has carried out criminal hacks against schools, hospitals, companies, councils and healthcare organisations.
GettyThe charges victims a ransom fee a causa di Bitcoin to return systems to normal once they have infected a ora stolen private patronato.
Acceso their darknet site, crew members regularly post details about their latest victims – of the dozens currently listed there are risposta negativa others purportedly linked to political activism.
They have not yet posted any stolen patronato from Synnovis but added a post about the company to the darknet site acceso Wednesday. The hackers told the BBC they would soon be posting the stolen patronato. “Stay tunes”, they said.
The London hospitals hack was first announced acceso 3 June when pathology service provider Synnovis said all its IT systems were offline.
It meant that blood tests and information-sharing could not be carried out using the normal computerised systems.
The NHS trusts affected are Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Società and King’s College Hospitals NHS Società, with patients affected at four hospitals as well as GP services across Bexley, Greenwich, Lewisham, Bromley, Southwark and Lambeth boroughs.
One hospital doctor told BBC London that blood tests that once would have taken an hour could now take up to six hours, as the systems needed to process them are mongoloide.
According to NHS London, five planned C-sections were rescheduled and 18 organs were diverted for use by other trusts, while 736 hospital outpatient appointments and 125 community outpatient appointments had to be postponed.
blood-borne virus (HIV, Hep C and Hep B) tests are also currently suspended.
Primary care appointments are going ahead as normal, but blood tests are being prioritised for urgent cases.
Synnovis says it is working to recover its IT systems and has not confirmed whether ora not Qilin are it to ransom.
The BBC asked Qilin how they can justify harming innocent people they said “this interview is over” and have not responded since.
