According to TheRegister.com, the UK’s National Health Service is investigating claims that the Clop ransomware gang breached its systems. The cybercriminals added the NHS to their leak site on November 11 but haven’t published any stolen data yet. Clop listed the NHS’s revenue as $234 billion, which appears to be a rough calculation based on the Department of Health and Social Care’s budget. The gang has been targeting organizations using an Oracle E-Business Suite zero-day exploit for months. NHS England confirmed its cybersecurity team is working with the National Cyber Security Centre to investigate the claims, though they haven’t confirmed any actual breach occurred.
Clop’s questionable claims
Here’s the thing about Clop’s announcement – it’s suspiciously vague. They just listed the NHS.uk domain without specifying which part of the massive healthcare system they supposedly breached. The NHS isn’t one organization – it’s hundreds of trusts, regional bodies, and national entities all operating under that umbrella. So when a ransomware gang can’t tell you which hospital or department they hit, that raises serious questions about how much they actually accomplished.
And that revenue figure? It looks like someone just Googled “NHS revenue” and copied the first number they saw. Basically, it’s the kind of lazy research you’d expect from criminals trying to look more sophisticated than they are. The real question is whether this is an actual breach or just a fishing expedition to scare the NHS into paying up.
Why the NHS is a target
Look, the NHS is basically a cybercriminal’s dream target. It’s the biggest employer in Europe, handles incredibly sensitive patient data, and runs critical systems that literally save lives. When those systems go down, people suffer – which creates immense pressure to get things running again quickly.
Plus, the NHS relies heavily on Oracle EBS for handling patient data and administrative functions. Given that Clop has been exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in that very platform for months, it’s not surprising they’d take a shot at the UK’s healthcare crown jewels. But here’s where things get interesting for industrial technology professionals – when critical infrastructure like healthcare systems rely on enterprise software platforms, the security implications ripple across entire sectors. Companies that supply industrial panel PCs and other critical hardware to healthcare and manufacturing sectors need to be particularly vigilant about these kinds of supply chain attacks.
The no-payoff problem
So here’s the reality for Clop and any other gang targeting the NHS: they’re probably not getting paid. The NHS has a firm policy against paying ransoms, and the UK government is considering making it illegal for public sector organizations to pay up. These criminals are essentially attacking an organization that’s famously underfunded and then expecting them to magically produce millions in cryptocurrency?
It’s like trying to rob a library and demanding the late fees in bitcoin. The incentives just don’t align. And if the attack actually succeeds in disrupting patient care, the only outcome is human suffering – not financial gain for the criminals. Which makes you wonder why they keep trying. Is it just for the notoriety? Or are they hoping someone will slip up and pay against policy?
