The tweet has been criticised (Picture: Twitter)

GCHQ praised its own ability to keep Britain safe in a cringeworthy poem tweeted just minutes after hackers launched a major cyber attack on NHS hospitals.

Hackers have reportedly taken control of computers and cut off phone lines in hospitals across England.

Mystery over where £50,000,000,000 of UK banknotes are

Those behind the attack are allegedly demanding $300 of the digital currency bitcoin, which equates to around £230 worth of the digital currency bitcoin, otherwise the files will be deleted.

But just minutes after news of the attack broke, the British intelligence and security organisation shared a poem for National Limerick Day, with the caption: ‘It’s a good job we’re better at keeping Britain safe than writing limericks.’




Two lines of the poem read: ‘We are against cyber threats, terrorists and those up to no good.

The NHS has been targeted by hackers (Picture: Getty)

‘Because keeping Britain safe is what we do.’

Twitter users were unimpressed by the poem, shared after the security breach.

Lancashire 'to be placed under coronavirus curfew on Friday'

One wrote: ‘Shouldn’t you be protecting the #NHS from #CyberAttack?’

Another wrote: ‘It seems you are actually better at limericks.’

NHS digital said 16 NHS organisations had reported that they were affected by the attack.

GCHQ later tweeted: ‘We are aware of cyber incident and we are working with NHS Digital and the NCA UK to investigate.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted GCHQ for a comment.