Pensioners blast NHS chiefs after their private records were leaked by cyber criminals and nobody told them

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A PENSIONER couple have blasted NHS chiefs for failing to tell them their most intimate medical details have been leaked online.Fiona and Owens Elliott from Dumfries were horrified to discover that they were among tens of thousands of people whose health records had been stolen by hackers and released on the dark web last week.The grandparents said they’d heard nothing from NHS Dumfries and Galloway about the theft and only discovered they were involved after the Sunday Mail told them.In March NHS Dumfries and Galloway confirmed it had been targeted by hacking group Inc Ransom which was demanding payment to keep the stolen documents secret.A police investigation is still ongoing but the criminals published 3TB of documents - around 43million emails’ worth - on Monday after the health board failed to pay.Thousands of patients’ details, including their names, addresses and sensitive medical conditions have been released and hundreds of people have downloaded the stolen files.Confidential documents relating to health board management have also been published as well as clinical photographs, information about staff members and private correspondence.Despite the data being released last week the Sunday Mail spoke to five victims who had no idea their details were involved until we showed them what had happened.None of them had been contacted by the health board and they were now worried about being targeted by scammers.Owens, 69, said: “I never thought something like this could happen to us.“We’d seen the news about the data being stolen but never in a million years did we think our own information was part of that.“It’s an absolute disgrace that nobody has contacted us about it.