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THE UK’s National Health Service on Monday announced a across its trusts, with the help of a newly created central Security Operations Centre.

To monitor for potential threats, the Centre will probe the integrity of in-house systems through “ethical hacking”. This is the practice of trying to break in to a computer system as a means of finding its weaknesses – before they are found by truly malicious attackers.

The NHS hopes that such penetration testing could prevent devastating cyberattacks like the one that hit in May. Ransomware known as WannaCry, designed to lock down computers and demand a payment, led to dire consequences for the NHS. Thousands of appointments were cancelled and five Accident and Emergency departments had to turn patients away.

A recent government report on the incident found that hospitals . Nearly a year before the attack, the Department of Health was advised to update software in an effort to prevent just such an attack.

The NHS hopes the “extra specialist resources” provided by the new centre will ensure timelier preparations.

Cyber-security expert Kevin Beaumont says the new project is “a really good idea”. He also points out that most large companies have similar cyber-security operations teams these days.

But penetration testing of systems across all 250 NHS trusts will likely be a laborious task, says Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey. “Hence there are still likely to be windows of opportunity for hackers and attackers,” he says. He hopes the scheme doesn’t lead to NHS managers thinking that cyber-security is something they can outsource: “I fear it could lead to some thinking that unless they have been notified of a problem, none exists.”