I agree Glenn, although I fear this may blow up into a much bigger NHS problem. 90% of NHS systems still use Windows XP, a now un-supported operating system wide open to even mild attacks etc. The usual lack of investment in key areas of the NHS.
When will governments ever learn?
Regards.

From reading on other forums I gather that Windows had offered the NHS and others a backup system to prevent this sort of thing happening which cynics might say is a form of ransom in itself. For whatever reason the offer was not taken up. Whether this lack of investment is an NHS management bean counting excersise or by government dictat is anyones guess.

Those responsible, be it government or management should be held to account in this lack of foresight that their systems can be penterated in such a way.

And those who commited this ransom demand should be hunted down and dealt with with extreme predudice.

I should point out that this is my opinion based only on what I have read on other media and forums.

But don't get me started on Vodafone withdrawing support for pagers as used by the NHS and fire services.

I understand microsoft have now released a special one-off security patch for XP machines since this happened worldwide, good they have done so but I fear the damage already done.
Nothing wrong with XP machines, it was not a bad operating system, but don't go on the internet with one in this day and age, so easy for hackers to gain control of generally unsupported operating systems, exactly what they all look for.
Best.

Am I wrong in thinking that microsoft has got us all by the short & curlies?

I don't see that they should have to support their older operating systems indefinitely. They gave years of warning that support for XP was ceasing. Windows 7 had been out for several years before that happened.

But this issue also affected newer Windows versions that hadn't installed a two-month old patch.