While the dust starts to settle after Friday’s NHS hack, the Tory government is facing rather tough questions about whether its austerity cuts were responsible.
Generally, the Tory government is not a big fan of the NHS and is rather hacked off that it keeps having to make election pledges to maintain it. However, the huge hack on Friday made people wonder if the Tories had skimped on security with the NHS.
Ben Wallace, UK security minister was put on the spot on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and had to defend its record on investment in cyber-security.
Asked if the Government was to blame for cutting budgets, Wallace said reasons for failures to protect against the attack dated back to decisions made by the Labour government in 2007 in relation to agreements with Microsoft.
Wallace said the Government had committed £1 billion to countering cyber threats across all Government.
“The blame lays with these individuals who have decided to blackmail and destroy our public services,” he said.
Not those who decided it was too expensive to upgrade Windows XP to something which was developed after the Romans left Britain.
“We have always said as a government that if you follow the very basic steps, continue to back yourself up as an organisation, you will always be in a position where a ransomware attack is minimised if not entirely deferred.”
