The NHS in the UK has widened its adoption of cyber defence technology from Cambridge specialist Darktrace to safeguard more systems and patient in formation.

Several hospitals and NHS foundations have taken Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System. – enhanced as Antigena – which detects and repels cyber attacks in real time.

CEO Nicole Eagan is presiding over a record worldwide rollout of the technology across sectors as diverse as healthcare, government and education.

The roots of the new NHS for Darktrace go back to last year’s WannaCry ransomware attack which spread globally and compromised 61 NHS organisations.

Darktrace Antigena successfully interrupted the attack across the NHS, driving the adoption of autonomous response technology that can fight back against in-progress attacks in seconds.
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, Luton and Dunstable Hospital, and West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust are just four NHS organisations enhancing their cyber security strategy with the Enterprise Immune System.

Craig York, associate dDirector of IT at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Autonomous response is the future for defending against fast-moving and unpredictable threats before they do damage. I am confident that we will be in a much better place to fend off another serious cyber-attack on the NHS with Darktrace at work.”
Dave Palmer, director of technology at Darktrace, spelled out the threat organisations are facing from cyber attackers.

“Today, cyber defenders have to react with the speed and accuracy of machines to keep our healthcare services and patients safe. “As our hospitals and clinics become increasingly digitised and hyper-connected, it is reassuring to see more and more NHS organisations deploying Darktrace’s AI to catch sophisticated attacks before they have the chance to cause a crisis.”

Darktrace became Cambridge’s 16th billion dollar company at the end of May – in fact it is valued at over $1.25bn – just five years after launch. It was named this newspaper’s Business of the Year in March 2017. It is the UK science & technology cluster’s youngest surviving unicorn.