Jeremy Hunt breaks silence on NHS cyber attack, three days after hospitals plunged into chaos

Health Secretary did not outline government’s plan to halt NHS disruption or prevent problems

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has broken his silence on the NHS cyber attacks, claiming there was no sign of a second attack and that "everyone" had a responsibility to protect themselves from malware.

Three days after systems of 47 trusts in England 13 NHS organisations in Scotland were hit, Mr Hunt gave a televised statement on the issue.

He told BBC News that he had been briefed on Monday morning by GCHQ and the National Security Cyber Centre, after he had been accused of not discussing the subject or giving comments to reporters over the weekend.

“According to our latest intelligence, we have not seen a second wave of attacks,” he said. “And the level of criminal activity is at the lower end of the range that we had anticipated and so I think that is encouraging.”

More than 200,000 people in 150 countries were affected by the ransomware which originated in the UK and Spain and spread around the world last week.

Mr Hunt said the message was “very clear”, for individuals and organisations. He did not mention government oversight or funding following a stressful weekend for NHS staff and patients.

The message from hackers that appeared on NHS computers (AP)

“Although we’ve never seen anything on this scale when it comes to ransomware attacks, they are relatively common and there are things that you can do, that everyone can do, all of us can do to protect ourselves,” he said.

He added that people could make sure their data was properly backed up and use anti-virus software.

In the brief BBC interview, Mr Hunt did not outline how the Government would prevent the systems from attack in the future.

A total of 11 NHS trusts are still reporting problems following the attack on Friday, with thousands of computers out of action.

Theresa May addressed the issue on the campaign trail, praising NHS staff but making clear the NHS had been warned about potential cyber weakness.“It was clear that warnings were given to hospital trusts but this is not something that focused on attacking the NHS here on the UK,” she said in Oxford.

Many hospitals are asking patients to turn up as planned but have reverted to the use of pen and paper. Some patients have had their appointments cancelled or have been unable to schedule a new appointment.

Mr Hunt was accused of “hiding” from the public after a weekend of radio silence. On Monday morning before the BBC interview he was accosted by reporters outside his home, but he cycled away without a reply.

He will attend a meeting of the government’s Cobra response committee on Monday evening, chaired by Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

Cyber security experts had voiced concerns that as hospitals switched on many pieces of equipment on Monday morning, the equipment could become infected and spread malware.

Medical staff said they saw computers crash “one by one” as the Wanna Decryptor ransomware, also known as WannaCry, took over their systems, locking machines and demanding money to release the data.

The Liberal Democrats demanded an enquiry, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to how the NHS staff reacted to the crisis. “This is just another example of the extraordinary lengths all of you go to every day to keep our country healthy,” he told the crowd at the Royal College of Nursing.

He joked that Mr Hunt had not appeared to answer questions. "I'm sure he'll be pitching up anytime soon," he said.

The attack was only stopped by a 22-year-old cyber whizz, who wished to stay anonymous, and who accidentally registered a domain name which shut down the attacks. He warned the hackers could upgrade the virus to remove the “kill switch” which was used the first time round to stop the attack.

It was also revealed that Mr Hunt was warned last year about the vulnerability of NHS computer systems to attack.

He has faced several dilemmas in recent months. In January the Health Secretary was accused of hiding after the British Red Cross declared a “humanitarian emergency” in NHS hospitals over the winter period due to a lack of resources.

Mr Hunt’s team was still reeling after junior doctors went to court over their new contract, claiming they were overworked and underpaid, but lost the judicial review in September. Last week Mr Hunt was confronted about reports that nurses working for the NHS resorted to using food banks. He responded that nurses were paid “more than the national average”.