News24 | Cyber attack paralyses SA public hospitals, leaving medical staff, patients in crisis

Subscribers can listen to this article

Public hospitals and state laboratories were left crippled after sophisticated cyber attackers infiltrated the system. (Getty Images)

NEWS 

Chaos has reigned over the past week in public hospitals after cyber attackers crippled the state’s laboratories. Doctors have to treat patients who they have no medical information for, and surgeons say they operate in emergencies “blindly”, because they do not receive blood results in time, after cyber attackers infiltrated the country’s National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) last week.

The NHLS, which is the state’s only provider of diagnostic pathology services, was infiltrated last Saturday morning by sophisticated cyber attackers, who forced the system to a halt with the ransomware virus.

South Africans need to be in the know if we want to create a prosperous future. News24 has kept the country informed for 25 years, and we’re about to enter a new chapter of fearless journalism. Join our free subscription trial to unlock this story and a world of news aimed to inform, empower, and inspire.

Next on City Press

What’s in City Press: Kabza De Small at the centre of a R1m contract dispute | Top justice ministry officials at war

19h ago