London hospitals cancel operations and appointments after being hit in ransomware attack

LONDON (AP) — Several London hospitals have canceled operations and sent patients away because of a cyberattack on a company that supplies pathology laboratory services. The firm, Synnovis, said Tuesday it had been hit with a ransomware attack. Chief executive Mark Dollar said the attack “has affected all Synnovis IT systems, resulting in interruptions to many of our pathology services.” The National Health Service said the “critical incident” had had a “major impact” on services at several hospitals, with blood transfusions particularly affected. Ransomware attacks involve criminals paralyzing computer systems with malware, then demanding money to release them.