There are hundreds of National Health Service trusts making up the NHS but 45 of them have been hit by the UK part of a global hacking affecting over 70 countries. It is not known what the results of this latest very high profile hacking are at the moment, loss of data, denial of service, or maybe the hackers are looking for financial gain as in typical ransomware situations. Operations and ambulances have been delayed as various IT departments have worked under extreme pressure to restore systems and access data to restore "business as usual".

It appears that unpatched loopholes in the Microsoft XP version of Windows might have allowed hackers into their intended targets.