Lessons from the NHS ransomware calamity

The WannaCry and related ransomware attacks, which disproportionately affected much of the NHS, signals that urgent work needs to be done in that sector. There are also wider lessons for the UK universities – given the dependency of institutions on IT systems, the large numbers of users and devices that connect to those systems and the requirement for ‘always on’ capability. This blog post will address five key observations that are aimed at stimulating planning and thinking in the HE community especially, but not solely, for those that operate virtual learning environment-heavy, cross-timezone and electronic submission offerings.