Irish health service gets hit by ransomware attack

The health service in Ireland (HSE) has temporarily shut down its IT system’s after what it described as a “significant ransomware attack”.

Director-general of the HSE Paul Reid has said that the health service is working with gardaí, the Defence Forces and third-party cybersecurity experts to respond to a cyberattack on its IT system. He said he believes it was “human-operated” with attackers attempting to access data and seeking a ransom. He later clarified that no ransom had yet been sought.

There is a significant ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems. We have taken the precaution of shutting down all our our IT systems in order to protect them from this attack and to allow us fully assess the situation with our own security partners.

— HSE Ireland (@HSELive) May 14, 2021

The tweet added that vaccinations for COVID-19 would not be affected and would go ahead “as planned” while another tweet confirmed that Ireland’s National Ambulance Service is operating as normal.

The Rotunda Maternity Hospital in Dublin has cancelled all non-urgent appointments and other hospitals are likely to be impacted.

Áine Lawlor reads the statement from the Health Service Executive after it had to temporarily shut down its IT system following what it described as a "significant ransomware attack" | Read more: https://t.co/Hargf2sawg pic.twitter.com/3G81iBwWBN

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 14, 2021