My other half works as an occupational therapist in the NHS. Her office's systems were affected but not until the end of the day. The stories one hears about organisation in the NHS, from top to bottom - today comes as absolutely no surprise. As she said this evening, "the IT people know as much about computers as my grandma. There are probably loads of holes and open doors for hackers."
I've just been watching the Newspaper Review on Sky News, which made it plain just what a political hot potato this IT crisis within the NHS really is ...... and it isn't anywhere near to being sorted yet. Really and truly how can it NOT have a political dimension?
Ive posted on South Belfast twice, suggesting a DUP gain.
I did this in 2105 and got burned as McDonnell held on with one of the lowest winning percentages you could imagine, in fact one of the lowest in parliamentary history. Honestly, some day the arse is going to fall out his vote, you do get the feeling that he is teetering at times and his survival ironically was probably helped by the handful of guilty unionist votes that he has collected consistently over the years.
Paula Bradshaw for Alliance is a strong campaigner but where will she pick up votes from? They would have to be UUP votes, which she has already farmed some (Paula could wear a sash on a good day) or the SDLPs if McDonnell falls off a cliff. How much more can she get? Open question. Her more likely target to steal is McDonnell.
The DUP were beaten out last time by the presence of Bob Stoker of UKIP who's 1900 votes did the damage. Stoker is a long standing ex UUP guy in the area and he carries a decent vote. He is not standing, partially as a nudge to the Unionist parties to get their act together in the constituency. Where his votes go in a tight race is most likely DUP, if they turn out
The DUP should really win this seat and that they don't is part of a long term problem in mobilising the Unionist vote, in particular the working class unionist vote. They have, sadly perhaps, picked former Assembly member Pengelly as candidate. She is not exactly a standout, therefore her ability to mobilise any more than the 2015 tally vote plus some homeless UKIP voters is open to question. That could well be enough though and I have backed that it is.
Yes South Belfast is in many ways diverse with a mix old money, new blow ins with cash, students, people who still think they are students and a more ethnically diverse element. It also holds some large loyalist areas like Taughmonagh (where the head of UDA hangs out), the Village and Belvoir. It is these areas that could close it for the DUP if they turned out but the loyalists have long had a fairly fractious history with the DUP, something that the ignorant from the outside don't quite understand.
On the nationalist side Sinn Fein have been improving and if they perform similarly or slightly above 2015 may fatally hurt McDonnell. They'd be delighted to do so in their war to eliminate the SDLP.
Side note. A number of election counts including Belfast constituencies will be held at the former site of the Maze prison. Should bring back a few memories for some party hacks...
Wasn't the DUP candidate's father an infamous Loyalist figure ?
You are confusing some fundamentals there about loyalist paramiltaries
The government need to get all over this NHS shambles quick sharp, which I expect them to do all weekend. Tricky in the middle of an election campaign, but necessary. Labour will of course blame them for this, but it will be forgotten about by the end of next week. Impact on the GE result - precisely zero.
Agreed that there will be no impact on the GE result. Doubt there will even be a shift in polling. I am no fan of the tories and I hadn't even considered that the government could be at fault for this until seeing suggestions on this board. Especially considering the global angle. It's a managerial problem in the NHS, not a particular policy related problem, so hard to pin blame on May or see what Corbyn/Labour could/would do differently.
How expensive in terms of GE seats, whether justified or not is today's cyber attack likely to be for the Tories? To a large extent that will depend on just how quickly the problem is sorted out and that no further problems arise. My guess is that it will cost the Tories at least 10-20 seats, even if resolved quickly and fairly painlessly and on that basis the 151-200 seat band for Labour at evens now looks attractive, as does, arguably, a buy of total Labour seats spread bet with Sporting at 160 ..... I've taken both bets tonight, but DYOR.
Do you really think it will swing seats? This is a global attack that has affected every nation, will the government really be blamed by swing voters? One could just as easily suggest it will focus minds on credibility and thus swing seats TO the government. But I doubt it either way, if this is resolved quickly it will be tomorrows fish and chip paper.
You're right of course in the sense that this was a global attack, but that said it smacks of earth-shattering incompetence taking into account the fact that it could have been avoided by the simple use of a Microsoft "patch" which had been readily available for some time. If true, then this is very damning for the Tories and could cost them dearly especially in an area, i.e. the NHS, where they are already not fully trusted. Yes, at least 10-20 seats I would say, maybe more. Hope I'm wrong, but my wallet believes I'm right.
Are you really saying that the Conservative party has been stopping NHS IT security ?
Really, your reasoning is bizarre.
No, I'm simply saying that the Government will be held responsible for major shortcomings in the NHS, which whether true or not these will inevitably be put down to under-funding .... it has simply been forever thus. Don't take my word for it, just wait for the next batch of polls to appear over the next few days and you'll see for yourself.
so the SNP will be similarly punished for the Scottish attacks?
Remember the global economic meltdown that started in America? Labour still got voted out. Sometimes the electorate is unfair. As to who, if anyone, will be blamed for this, let's wait and see. There are still some things that do not make sense. If the NHS was targeted, then as y0kel hinted, there may be more to this. If it is just phishing and then exploiting old protocols to spread through networks, it ought to be industry-agnostic.
Talking of starting in America, it looks as if this attack is exploiting at least two loopholes discovered or invented by the NSA but not notified to Microsoft for patching. Politicians of all stripes should think hard before demanding vendors leave open back doors or weaken encryption.
Surely the thing to bear in mind is that on any particular day or even week the proportion of people using the NHS is very small.
So unless it blows up into an absolutely massive emergency (with say a large number of hospitals being forced to completely close for say at least a week) then the proportion of people impacted just isn't great enough to impact voting intention across the whole population.
The other thing is that, again unless it becomes a massive emergency, it's unlikely to remain top of the news agenda because the focus will inevitably move back to the GE campaign.
Next week both Con and Lab are launching their manifestos - they are both bound to lead the news agenda.
The government need to get all over this NHS shambles quick sharp, which I expect them to do all weekend. Tricky in the middle of an election campaign, but necessary. Labour will of course blame them for this, but it will be forgotten about by the end of next week. Impact on the GE result - precisely zero.
Agreed that there will be no impact on the GE result. Doubt there will even be a shift in polling. I am no fan of the tories and I hadn't even considered that the government could be at fault for this until seeing suggestions on this board. Especially considering the global angle. It's a managerial problem in the NHS, not a particular policy related problem, so hard to pin blame on May or see what Corbyn/Labour could/would do differently.
It's the GCHQ/NSA angle which is dynamite. Not sure it'll blow up though. Too techy & complicated for the general public / journos / OAP politicians to get their heads around.
These are hacking tools we've (jointly) spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing - used to (legitimately) further our foreign policy objectives as and when needed.
And a load of these tools got hacked. And now they're being used against our own hospitals.
What happened today was entirely preventable. It's a huge f*ck up.
The government need to get all over this NHS shambles quick sharp, which I expect them to do all weekend. Tricky in the middle of an election campaign, but necessary. Labour will of course blame them for this, but it will be forgotten about by the end of next week. Impact on the GE result - precisely zero.
Agreed that there will be no impact on the GE result. Doubt there will even be a shift in polling. I am no fan of the tories and I hadn't even considered that the government could be at fault for this until seeing suggestions on this board. Especially considering the global angle. It's a managerial problem in the NHS, not a particular policy related problem, so hard to pin blame on May or see what Corbyn/Labour could/would do differently.
Yes, I think we all assume the public is as perceptive and as highly tuned to all the events as we are on boards like this. I think there's more than a little bit of wishful thinking from some, including Labour of course, who think this will play well for them and bad for the Tories. Every single thing will be magnified from now until election day, but unless there's a real catastrophe for the Tories, nothing is going to change the result.
I've just been watching the Newspaper Review on Sky News, which made it plain just what a political hot potato this IT crisis within the NHS really is ...... and it isn't anywhere near to being sorted yet. Really and truly how can it NOT have a political dimension?
I don't think it will have a political impact because, apart from anything else, some parts of the Scottish health service were affected which can't possibly be underfunded by their progressive government. But if it does gain any traction then it may well simply reinforce May's position as 'a leader who will stay calm and take the necessary action'. We will all be told we need strong and stable virus protection!
Off topic - French politics still crazy as ever. The Front National in France appears to be suffering a case of ukipitis - first MLP talks about renaming it as part of a larger movement, which FN loyalists object to. Then Marion Marechal says she is retiring from politics (for now), clearly realising there is no future for her there with her aunt leading the party. She is very popular and a great communicator (her politics are crazier than her aunts, but she's one of their best media performers). She has actually been rebuked by Jean Marie, who basically accused of her of desertion, a potential new falling out in the Le Pen family feud. Her wing of the party, the pinochetiste free market authoritarian wing, are accusing MLP and Philippot of failing because of focusing on euroscepticism, and insisting that plans to quit the euro are dropped. In return, Philipot is threatening to leave the FN if they drop their plans for euroscepticism. The upshot is a hugely divided party, with a coalition of two quite different ideologies only sharing a dislike of islam. I expect them to run a poorly managed and divided campaign for the legislatives, and will underperform significantly in vote share and seat totals.
On the other side of the spectrum - former Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the PS a dead party, and tried to run for En Marche, only to be rejected by Macron and have to run as an independent now. Imagine if Blair said Labour was dead, tried to join Farron's Lib Dems, only to be rejected by Farron. Valls was prime minister until late last year, and now has no party that wants him, it is a huge fall from grace. He's right though, the socialists are dead - even Hamon is now talking about starting a new left movement, and he is their presidential candidate!
I think En Marche will win most seats with LR not far behind. No majority though.
The government need to get all over this NHS shambles quick sharp, which I expect them to do all weekend. Tricky in the middle of an election campaign, but necessary. Labour will of course blame them for this, but it will be forgotten about by the end of next week. Impact on the GE result - precisely zero.
Agreed that there will be no impact on the GE result. Doubt there will even be a shift in polling. I am no fan of the tories and I hadn't even considered that the government could be at fault for this until seeing suggestions on this board. Especially considering the global angle. It's a managerial problem in the NHS, not a particular policy related problem, so hard to pin blame on May or see what Corbyn/Labour could/would do differently.
It's the GCHQ/NSA angle which is dynamite. Not sure it'll blow up though. Too techy & complicated for the general public / journos / OAP politicians to get their heads around.
These are hacking tools we've (jointly) spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing - used to (legitimately) further our foreign policy objectives as and when needed.
And a load of these tools got hacked. And now they're being used against our own hospitals.
What happened today was entirely preventable. It's a huge f*ck up.
The government need to get all over this NHS shambles quick sharp, which I expect them to do all weekend. Tricky in the middle of an election campaign, but necessary. Labour will of course blame them for this, but it will be forgotten about by the end of next week. Impact on the GE result - precisely zero.
Agreed that there will be no impact on the GE result. Doubt there will even be a shift in polling. I am no fan of the tories and I hadn't even considered that the government could be at fault for this until seeing suggestions on this board. Especially considering the global angle. It's a managerial problem in the NHS, not a particular policy related problem, so hard to pin blame on May or see what Corbyn/Labour could/would do differently.
It's the GCHQ/NSA angle which is dynamite. Not sure it'll blow up though. Too techy & complicated for the general public / journos / OAP politicians to get their heads around.
These are hacking tools we've (jointly) spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing - used to (legitimately) further our foreign policy objectives as and when needed.
And a load of these tools got hacked. And now they're being used against our own hospitals.
What happened today was entirely preventable. It's a huge f*ck up.
The government need to get all over this NHS shambles quick sharp, which I expect them to do all weekend. Tricky in the middle of an election campaign, but necessary. Labour will of course blame them for this, but it will be forgotten about by the end of next week. Impact on the GE result - precisely zero.
Agreed that there will be no impact on the GE result. Doubt there will even be a shift in polling. I am no fan of the tories and I hadn't even considered that the government could be at fault for this until seeing suggestions on this board. Especially considering the global angle. It's a managerial problem in the NHS, not a particular policy related problem, so hard to pin blame on May or see what Corbyn/Labour could/would do differently.
It's the GCHQ/NSA angle which is dynamite. Not sure it'll blow up though. Too techy & complicated for the general public / journos / OAP politicians to get their heads around.
These are hacking tools we've (jointly) spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing - used to (legitimately) further our foreign policy objectives as and when needed.
And a load of these tools got hacked. And now they're being used against our own hospitals.
What happened today was entirely preventable. It's a huge f*ck up.
Especially as one patch is all that was needed!
Yes. A patch that should have been delivered several years ago via windows update, or whatever. GCHQ/NSA chose, instead, to exploit and weaponize it. And the NHS is paying the price.
How expensive in terms of GE seats, whether justified or not is today's cyber attack likely to be for the Tories? To a large extent that will depend on just how quickly the problem is sorted out and that no further problems arise. My guess is that it will cost the Tories at least 10-20 seats, even if resolved quickly and fairly painlessly and on that basis the 151-200 seat band for Labour at evens now looks attractive, as does, arguably, a buy of total Labour seats spread bet with Sporting at 160 ..... I've taken both bets tonight, but DYOR.
Do you really think it will swing seats? This is a global attack that has affected every nation, will the government really be blamed by swing voters? One could just as easily suggest it will focus minds on credibility and thus swing seats TO the government. But I doubt it either way, if this is resolved quickly it will be tomorrows fish and chip paper.
You're right of course in the sense that this was a global attack, but that said it smacks of earth-shattering incompetence taking into account the fact that it could have been avoided by the simple use of a Microsoft "patch" which had been readily available for some time. If true, then this is very damning for the Tories and could cost them dearly especially in an area, i.e. the NHS, where they are already not fully trusted. Yes, at least 10-20 seats I would say, maybe more. Hope I'm wrong, but my wallet believes I'm right.
Are you really saying that the Conservative party has been stopping NHS IT security ?
Really, your reasoning is bizarre.
No, I'm simply saying that the .
You seem to be in a minority of one among PBers discussing this.
Which is odd because normally there are lots of pb-ers still talking about the failed IT project under Labour, yet suddenly NHS IT is of no interest to them.
Its not an IT project though is it but rather basic IT security.
As always, it's more complicated than that but in terms of an electoral price, let's see how it looks in the morning, especially with the foreign dimension, and how the parties respond.
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
The government need to get all over this NHS shambles quick sharp, which I expect them to do all weekend. Tricky in the middle of an election campaign, but necessary. Labour will of course blame them for this, but it will be forgotten about by the end of next week. Impact on the GE result - precisely zero.
Agreed that there will be no impact on the GE result. Doubt there will even be a shift in polling. I am no fan of the tories and I hadn't even considered that the government could be at fault for this until seeing suggestions on this board. Especially considering the global angle. It's a managerial problem in the NHS, not a particular policy related problem, so hard to pin blame on May or see what Corbyn/Labour could/would do differently.
It's the GCHQ/NSA angle which is dynamite. Not sure it'll blow up though. Too techy & complicated for the general public / journos / OAP politicians to get their heads around.
These are hacking tools we've (jointly) spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing - used to (legitimately) further our foreign policy objectives as and when needed.
And a load of these tools got hacked. And now they're being used against our own hospitals.
What happened today was entirely preventable. It's a huge f*ck up.
Especially as one patch is all that was needed!
Yes. A patch that should have been delivered several years ago via windows update, or whatever. GCHQ/NSA chose, instead, to exploit and weaponize it. And the NHS is paying the price.
The government need to get all over this NHS shambles quick sharp, which I expect them to do all weekend. Tricky in the middle of an election campaign, but necessary. Labour will of course blame them for this, but it will be forgotten about by the end of next week. Impact on the GE result - precisely zero.
Agreed that there will be no impact on the GE result. Doubt there will even be a shift in polling. I am no fan of the tories and I hadn't even considered that the government could be at fault for this until seeing suggestions on this board. Especially considering the global angle. It's a managerial problem in the NHS, not a particular policy related problem, so hard to pin blame on May or see what Corbyn/Labour could/would do differently.
It's the GCHQ/NSA angle which is dynamite. Not sure it'll blow up though. Too techy & complicated for the general public / journos / OAP politicians to get their heads around.
These are hacking tools we've (jointly) spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing - used to (legitimately) further our foreign policy objectives as and when needed.
And a load of these tools got hacked. And now they're being used against our own hospitals.
What happened today was entirely preventable. It's a huge f*ck up.
Especially as one patch is all that was needed!
Yes. A patch that should have been delivered several years ago via windows update, or whatever. GCHQ/NSA chose, instead, to exploit and weaponize it. And the NHS is paying the price.
I hope nobody dies.
You could also argue had GCHQ not hacked terrorist networks people would have died from more terrorist attacks, so you cannot win either way
Some very high profile and large organisations impacted. The ransom demand is ridiculously small The actual amounts paid into the bitcoin account so far is very small
I*ts a very odd hit if you are looking for cash, unless it just happens to be a very random exercise.
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
I've just been watching the Newspaper Review on Sky News, which made it plain just what a political hot potato this IT crisis within the NHS really is ...... and it isn't anywhere near to being sorted yet. Really and truly how can it NOT have a political dimension?
Maybe it will have consequences and maybe it wont.
And maybe one of those consequences will have a political dimension.
But the mistake you're making is to assume that will be bad for the government.
And the likes of Sky News always exaggerate the importance of everything.
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
Really and truly how can it NOT have a political dimension?
Because it might be viewed as a "natural disaster" in the same way that the Rover closure during a GE campaign was? Unless you're arguing that the govt is responsible for FedEx and the Russian Interior Ministry too?
Some very high profile and large organisations impacted. The ransom demand is ridiculously small The actual amounts paid into the bitcoin account so far is very small
I*ts a very odd hit if you are looking for cash, unless it just happens to be a very random exercise.
Presumably the ransom demand is deliberately small so people pay it -- it is cheaper to pay £300 or whatever to get your files back than what it will cost in time, let alone consultants and experts. It is the pattern of targets that looks odd.
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
But that also was true of the 2008 financial crash! It did not prevent the Brown Govt being blamed for something over which it had effectively no control.
I've just been watching the Newspaper Review on Sky News, which made it plain just what a political hot potato this IT crisis within the NHS really is ...... and it isn't anywhere near to being sorted yet. Really and truly how can it NOT have a political dimension?
Maybe it will have consequences and maybe it wont.
And maybe one of those consequences will have a political dimension.
But the mistake you're making is to assume that will be bad for the government.
And the likes of Sky News always exaggerate the importance of everything.
The worst episode I can remember was when Sky were full nuclear on Hague for "dithering" over rescuing oil workers in Libya. Days of coverage of why wasn't he doing anything, all these people could be killed yadda yadda yadda.
Only a couple of weeks later did we find out that Hague had actually sent the SAS in undercover before the s##t hit the fan, secured critical info at the embassies and they then set out into the desert. Did their usual business of insuring any local difficulties were handled and set up perimeters surrounding the oil facilities upon which the planes were sent in.
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
But that also was true of the 2008 financial crash! It did not prevent the Brown Govt being blamed for something over which it had effectively no control.
The 2008 financial crash saw unemployment rise rapidly and the biggest banking crash since 1929 and its consequences lasted years, this is nothing like the 2008 crash, it will be over in a day or 2 once the systems are up and running again
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
But that also was true of the 2008 financial crash! It did not prevent the Brown Govt being blamed for something over which it had effectively no control.
Brown had bigged himself up as the 'Iron Chancellor', no more boom and bust, financial security etc and we ended up with banks going bankrupt and a massive recession.
Now if the NHS etc stops working for a few months May's 'strong and stable' imagery would take a beating.
Some very high profile and large organisations impacted. The ransom demand is ridiculously small The actual amounts paid into the bitcoin account so far is very small
I*ts a very odd hit if you are looking for cash, unless it just happens to be a very random exercise.
Presumably the ransom demand is deliberately small so people pay it -- it is cheaper to pay £300 or whatever to get your files back than what it will cost in time, let alone consultants and experts. It is the pattern of targets that looks odd.
Well this is the thing, unless its a truly random spam email borne attack.
The great irony is that the controller itself is open to a reverse hack. .
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
I guess that makes me think what if this got far, far worse - say it escalated into a real national emergency affecting things like power stations, telephone network, transport (and NHS) - with literally everything out of action.
Then it really could have political implications - though even then it might mean people rally to May as the competent leader.
However, in that situation much would depend on the Government's handling of the crisis and the public's assessment of that.
Some very high profile and large organisations impacted. The ransom demand is ridiculously small The actual amounts paid into the bitcoin account so far is very small
I*ts a very odd hit if you are looking for cash, unless it just happens to be a very random exercise.
Presumably the ransom demand is deliberately small so people pay it -- it is cheaper to pay £300 or whatever to get your files back than what it will cost in time, let alone consultants and experts. It is the pattern of targets that looks odd.
Because I doubt they were targets.
My entirely uneducated guess is that this virus has been set to spread as far and wide as possible and only to kick into effect today. Had this virus revealed itself sooner it would have been killed off sooner, sort of like how viruses IRL have evolved to have an incubation period before symptoms reveal.
I don't believe that the NHS was hacked. I do believe the NHS was left vulnerable and has fallen victim. It is a high profile victim given its nature. But I don't think it was targeted for hacking, it is simply a big scalp that has fallen prey to this virus.
Really and truly how can it NOT have a political dimension?
Because it might be viewed as a "natural disaster" in the same way that the Rover closure during a GE campaign was? Unless you're arguing that the govt is responsible for FedEx and the Russian Interior Ministry too?
and of course Deutsche Bahn also affected (amongst many others).
If it had been just the NHS, then no matter the facts the government would have been on back foot
still - no doubt Jezza will sort it out with his extremely competent shadow cabinet.
I dont think its selling as a national security issue. If airports were shut or banks had gone down then yes but this is going as nhs using out of date equipment and it wont be the local trusts that get the blame
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
I guess that makes me think what if this got far, far worse - say it escalated into a real national emergency affecting things like power stations, telephone network, transport (and NHS) - with literally everything out of action.
Then it really could have political implications - though even then it might mean people rally to May as the competent leader.
However, in that situation much would depend on the Government's handling of the crisis and the public's assessment of that.
I doubt it will last much beyond the weekend, GCHQ etc are already onto it and even if it did the election is in less than a month and in terms of who you want to manage a crisis, Corbyn or May, it is no contest, if Labour had a more competent leader they might be more of a threat but yet again Corbyn will be unable to capitalise, May could simply point out he would probably hold a seminar with the hackers as he wants to do with ISIL!
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
I guess that makes me think what if this got far, far worse - say it escalated into a real national emergency affecting things like power stations, telephone network, transport (and NHS) - with literally everything out of action.
Then it really could have political implications - though even then it might mean people rally to May as the competent leader.
However, in that situation much would depend on the Government's handling of the crisis and the public's assessment of that.
I doubt it will last much beyond the weekend, GCHQ etc are already onto it and even if it did the election is in less than a month and in terms of who you want to manage a crisis, Corbyn or May, it is no contest, if Labour had a more competent leader they might be more of a threat but yet again Corbyn will be unable to capitalise, May could simply point out he would probably hold a seminar with the hackers as he wants to do with ISIL!
Send in the drones....oh wait the supreme leader has ordered that they all be grounded...
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
I guess that makes me think what if this got far, far worse - say it escalated into a real national emergency affecting things like power stations, telephone network, transport (and NHS) - with literally everything out of action.
Then it really could have political implications - though even then it might mean people rally to May as the competent leader.
However, in that situation much would depend on the Government's handling of the crisis and the public's assessment of that.
I doubt it will last much beyond the weekend, GCHQ etc are already onto it and even if it did the election is in less than a month and in terms of who you want to manage a crisis, Corbyn or May, it is no contest, if Labour had a more competent leader they might be more of a threat but yet again Corbyn will be unable to capitalise, May could simply point out he would probably hold a seminar with the hackers as he wants to do with ISIL!
Send in the drones....oh wait the supreme leader has ordered that they all be grounded...
I dont think its selling as a national security issue. If airports were shut or banks had gone down then yes but this is going as nhs using out of date equipment and it wont be the local trusts that get the blame
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
But that also was true of the 2008 financial crash! It did not prevent the Brown Govt being blamed for something over which it had effectively no control.
The 2008 financial crash saw unemployment rise rapidly and the biggest banking crash since 1929 and its consequences lasted years, this is nothing like the 2008 crash, it will be over in a day or 2 once the systems are up and running again
But it was still largely the consequence of a Black Swan event in the USA!
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
But that also was true of the 2008 financial crash! It did not prevent the Brown Govt being blamed for something over which it had effectively no control.
The 2008 financial crash saw unemployment rise rapidly and the biggest banking crash since 1929 and its consequences lasted years, this is nothing like the 2008 crash, it will be over in a day or 2 once the systems are up and running again
But it was still largely the consequence of a Black Swan event in the USA!
And initially Brown's ratings improved as a "cling onto nurse"/"no time for a novice" effect kicked in. It was only after things continued to collapse that he suffered.
Maybe already posted but a bit of context (per BBC):
40 NHS "bodies" are affected.
There are a total of 200 NHS "bodies" in England.
So, at least on the face of it, 80% of the NHS is totally unaffected.
Yet.
"The malware contains a hardcoded “kill switch” that the creator could choose to implement if he or she wanted. This involved a very long nonsensical domain name that the malware makes a request to – just as if it was looking up any website – and if the request comes back and shows that the domain is live, the kill switch takes effect and the malware stops spreading. Of course, this relies on the creator of the malware registering the specific domain. In this case, the creator failed to do this. And @malwaretechblog did early this morning (Pacific Time), stopping the rapid proliferation of the ransomware."
Which companies might get contracts to deal with the hacker damage to NHS computer systems and to defend against similar attacks in future? That's not a rhetorical question. It looks as though there will be a fast-expanding state demand. The CPNI on its website just says it works in partnership with the private sector. They don't name any companies. G4S? BT?
Nobody in the teresa may echo chanber worried re a story about nhs using out of date computer equipment?
This place is full of people who dislike May, certainly it's closer to even on that than it is on the left right split, which somewhat undermines your implicit assumption it is something may should be worried about.
It's technical, full of reliance on human error and complexity, not exactly ripe for simple 'it's der government' thinking.
A Labour Government would not engage with Isil directly but would support talks with the terror group in Geneva, he said.
lol- you brainless muppet.
What exactly do you negotiate about?
He has previously said the leader of Isis 'not being around' would be a good thing for a long term peaceful settlement, I'm not sure how that would work if he also said the above.
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
But that also was true of the 2008 financial crash! It did not prevent the Brown Govt being blamed for something over which it had effectively no control.
The 2008 financial crash saw unemployment rise rapidly and the biggest banking crash since 1929 and its consequences lasted years, this is nothing like the 2008 crash, it will be over in a day or 2 once the systems are up and running again
But it was still largely the consequence of a Black Swan event in the USA!
Northern Rock were based in Newcastle not the USA and overconsumption and unsustainable house prices are not black swans.
I can assure you virtually nobody will switch from May to Corbyn because the NHS was hacked, if you think May's government was not tough enough on national security you are certainly not going to vote for Corbyn Labour and given over 90 countries have now been hacked in someway it was not just due to the NHS failure to upgrade
Yes - the international aspect is key - and the BBC (both TV and internet) have stressed the international aspect very prominently.
Exactly and now the latest is the German rail network is down because of the hack and countries from Russia to Spain to China have all been hit as well as the UK
But that also was true of the 2008 financial crash! It did not prevent the Brown Govt being blamed for something over which it had effectively no control.
The 2008 financial crash saw unemployment rise rapidly and the biggest banking crash since 1929 and its consequences lasted years, this is nothing like the 2008 crash, it will be over in a day or 2 once the systems are up and running again
But it was still largely the consequence of a Black Swan event in the USA!
Northern Rock were based in Newcastle not the USA and overconsumption and unsustainable house prices are not black swans.
That was in Autumn 2007 - a year before the main crisis hit the international economy. Ad mittedly it may have been a warning sign of what was to come - but was not the main event .
Page 15 tables. Utterly shocking for Labour. Behind in the North East ffsake !
SNP at 36% too if I'm reading it right. vs Blues 27%.
Not excluding don't knows etc.
thanks. but if Blues can get 75% of SNP that's impressive.
Which party did you vote for in the general election in May 2015?
SNP 40% Con 20%
Actual reality
SNP 50% Con 15%
When you exclude Did Not Vote and refusers, Ashcroft's respondents answered 47% SNP, 23% Con for their 2015 vote. I wondered if people were remembering their constituency vote at Holyrood 2016 (very close to those figures), but it seems like a Con-heavy sample overall: the recall across GB was 41% Con (v 38% actual), 29% Lab (31%), 12% UKIP (13%), 9% LD (8%).
And the published data are not weighted at all - GB respondents were 56% female, for instance. Interestingly, 52% of the GB sample recalls voting Remain in 2016.
Comments
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/health/security-failings-exposed-by-hackers-cyber-attack-on-hospitals-1-8450872
so, what lessons were learned?
Really and truly how can it NOT have a political dimension?
So unless it blows up into an absolutely massive emergency (with say a large number of hospitals being forced to completely close for say at least a week) then the proportion of people impacted just isn't great enough to impact voting intention across the whole population.
The other thing is that, again unless it becomes a massive emergency, it's unlikely to remain top of the news agenda because the focus will inevitably move back to the GE campaign.
Next week both Con and Lab are launching their manifestos - they are both bound to lead the news agenda.
These are hacking tools we've (jointly) spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing - used to (legitimately) further our foreign policy objectives as and when needed.
And a load of these tools got hacked. And now they're being used against our own hospitals.
What happened today was entirely preventable. It's a huge f*ck up.
On the other side of the spectrum - former Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the PS a dead party, and tried to run for En Marche, only to be rejected by Macron and have to run as an independent now. Imagine if Blair said Labour was dead, tried to join Farron's Lib Dems, only to be rejected by Farron. Valls was prime minister until late last year, and now has no party that wants him, it is a huge fall from grace. He's right though, the socialists are dead - even Hamon is now talking about starting a new left movement, and he is their presidential candidate!
I think En Marche will win most seats with LR not far behind. No majority though.
If the govt can access your data, blackmailers, fraudsters (and worse) can too.
That's the govt's policy. To make us less secure.
I hope nobody dies.
Edit: not months, but a month ago.
The ransom demand is ridiculously small
The actual amounts paid into the bitcoin account so far is very small
I*ts a very odd hit if you are looking for cash, unless it just happens to be a very random exercise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_local_elections,_2017
And maybe one of those consequences will have a political dimension.
But the mistake you're making is to assume that will be bad for the government.
And the likes of Sky News always exaggerate the importance of everything.
Only a couple of weeks later did we find out that Hague had actually sent the SAS in undercover before the s##t hit the fan, secured critical info at the embassies and they then set out into the desert. Did their usual business of insuring any local difficulties were handled and set up perimeters surrounding the oil facilities upon which the planes were sent in.
Now if the NHS etc stops working for a few months May's 'strong and stable' imagery would take a beating.
If.
I doubt it will have much impact either way....
The great irony is that the controller itself is open to a reverse hack. .
A Labour Government would not engage with Isil directly but would support talks with the terror group in Geneva, he said.
lol- you brainless muppet.
What exactly do you negotiate about?
https://intel.malwaretech.com/botnet/wcrypt
Then it really could have political implications - though even then it might mean people rally to May as the competent leader.
However, in that situation much would depend on the Government's handling of the crisis and the public's assessment of that.
My entirely uneducated guess is that this virus has been set to spread as far and wide as possible and only to kick into effect today. Had this virus revealed itself sooner it would have been killed off sooner, sort of like how viruses IRL have evolved to have an incubation period before symptoms reveal.
I don't believe that the NHS was hacked. I do believe the NHS was left vulnerable and has fallen victim. It is a high profile victim given its nature. But I don't think it was targeted for hacking, it is simply a big scalp that has fallen prey to this virus.
If it had been just the NHS, then no matter the facts the government would have been on back foot
still - no doubt Jezza will sort it out with his extremely competent shadow cabinet.
oh
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4501132/Paul-Nuttall-Moonwalking-Ukip-leader-appears-walk-spot.html
40 NHS "bodies" are affected.
There are a total of 200 NHS "bodies" in England.
So, at least on the face of it, 80% of the NHS is totally unaffected.
http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html
"The malware contains a hardcoded “kill switch” that the creator could choose to implement if he or she wanted. This involved a very long nonsensical domain name that the malware makes a request to – just as if it was looking up any website – and if the request comes back and shows that the domain is live, the kill switch takes effect and the malware stops spreading. Of course, this relies on the creator of the malware registering the specific domain. In this case, the creator failed to do this. And @malwaretechblog did early this morning (Pacific Time), stopping the rapid proliferation of the ransomware."
https://www.theguardian.com/society/live/2017/may/12/england-hospitals-cyber-attack-nhs-live-updates
Which indicates a lazy hack.
But these tools are out in the open now, so unpatched pc's are going to get hit hard.
Ten years from now they will.
It's technical, full of reliance on human error and complexity, not exactly ripe for simple 'it's der government' thinking.
And the published data are not weighted at all - GB respondents were 56% female, for instance. Interestingly, 52% of the GB sample recalls voting Remain in 2016.