From informationsecuritybuzz.com
The opening of a malicious Microsoft Excel file attached to a phishing email led to the cyber attack that crippled the national health service earlier this year, according to a report on the incident published on Friday. The file was opened at a HSE workstation on March 18th, with the email having been sent to the “patient zero workstation” two days’ earlier. Over the coming eight weeks a number of “alerts” were raised within the health service that the IT system might be compromised, but the significance of the alerts was not identified at the time.