There’s a wonderful Amy Schumer sketch in which the comedian takes her mother and her laptop along to a therapist to try to address the anger that Schumer feels when confronted with her mum’s computer incompetence. “Let’s attach the photo,” Schumer says, once her mum has managed to switch the machine on. “To the computer?” Schumer closes her eyes, frustrated: “No. To the email.” “Well,” her mum says, disheartened, “I didn’t bring a cord.”

It’s a keenly observed study that those of us who are young, or relatively young, know all too well when it comes to parents and technology. It is less amusing when it isn’t one’s mum who’s not 100% sure what the shift key is for, or that the “internet” and the “web” aren’t interchangeable, but the people with responsibility for the smooth running of our country.

Jeremy Hunt 'ignored warning signs' before cyber-attack hit NHS Read more

I wrote a few years ago about the staggering ignorance of Günther Oettinger, the EU’s then digital commissioner, when he dismissed those celebrities who had stolen nude photos posted online as “stupid”. And it was just a few weeks ago that home secretary Amber Rudd started saying “necessary hashtags” at random, when talking about cyberterrorism. I also recall a Newsnight interview in which Malcolm Rifkind, then overseeing the intelligence agencies, didn’t seem to understand the technology involved.

There’s an intergenerational issue here, of course. Much maligned “millennial snowflakes” are suddenly worth their weight in gold when someone can’t embed a gif of David Cameron and a pig into an email. So-called digital natives – having avoided the fate of their elders who were written off as “nerds” – have the advantage of having “grown up with” the tech.

Like toddlers who grow up in a bilingual household, we are now fluent. This envy of ease holds true for the next generation on, who are even more skilled. Five-year-olds are coding at school – a skill I have never been able to get to grips with. But our world is now digital. The likes of Edward Snowden have done much to close the knowledge gap, and every lay person should have a rudimentary grasp of how technology works; people in government, much more so.

Which brings us to the NHS ransomware attack, or “ranzomware attack” as Theresa May called it, with that habit she has of inserting letter Zs where they don’t exist. Not to be a secondary school teacher about this, but failing to prepare is preparing to fail, and that is exactly what happened with this attack. Ministers made the decision to end the NHS contract with Microsoft back in 2010, while many trusts were still using an old operating system (Windows XP). When operating systems become defunct, as newer versions are rolled out, eventually the maker stops supporting them and providing fixes, or “patches”, for their vulnerabilities. This isn’t even technological knowledge, it is simple market economics.

One would hope Hunt has aides more computer savvy than he – but I’m not entirely sure he does

The government made the decision not to extend the deal, but instead pay £5.5m for support from Microsoft for the old operating systems. That deal ended a year ago and hospital trusts were advised to move to a more up-to-date system, which would have the latest security updates. Perhaps if health secretary Jeremy Hunt understood tech better – he says he does – last week’s ransomware attack might have been averted. Updating systems would not have been a choice for trusts, but something mandated by central government. One would hope Hunt has aides more computer-savvy than he – but I’m not entirely sure he does. The Tories used to have an expert in Rohan Silva, but not even he is around any more.

It’s true that the NHS and computers have never mixed well: one abandoned IT system cost the public purse £10bn. Trust chief executives must take more interest in tech and NHS Digital should do a better job of making sure they spend on cybersecurity; some spend nothing at all. Nobody is saying that the NHS IT system is going to be as easy to maintain as switching it on and off again, but that’s precisely why the government needs to start taking tech seriously and investing in those who understand it.