A “significant ransomware attack” caused widespread disruption to Ireland’s health service, forcing cancellations and blocking services.
Paul Reid, Ireland’s Health Service Executive chief executive, told RTÉ there had been a “human-operated” attempt to access data for a likely ransom. “There has been no ransom demand at this stage. The key thing is to contain the issue. We are in the containment phase.”
Reid said the HSE was working with police, the defence forces and third-party cybersecurity experts to respond to the cyber attack. He apologised to patients and the public for the disruption.
The attack has affected national and local systems that provide core services. However COVID vaccinations and ambulance services were unaffected.
Several hospitals cancelled outpatient visits or asked patients with appointments to not attend. The Rotunda, a Dublin maternity hospital, said it was experiencing a “critical emergency”, cancelling all outpatients visits save for women over 35 weeks pregnant.
At Cork university hospital, the oncology department was reportedly brought to a halt. The child and family agency Tusla said its IT systems, including the portal through which child protection referrals are made, were offline.
In the US earlier this week, the Colonial petrochemical pipeline was crippled in a major cyberattack by a cybercriminal group called Darkside, resulting in fuel shortages and states of emergency being declared. The pipeline company reportedly paid a ransom fee of $5 million to get control back of their systems.
Master of the Rotunda Hospital Professor Fergal Malone told Morning Ireland that accessing patient records and data was the reason for the cancellations.
There was a backup plan to use an “old-fashioned” paper-based system, he said, but added that “throughput would be much slower” this way.
Malone said the hospital discovered unusual activity in its IT systems at about 2am and later detected what appeared to be a ransomware virus. “We use a common system throughout the HSE in terms of registering patients and it seems that must have been the entry point or source,” he told RTÉ. “It means we have had to shut down all our computer systems.”
However, all patients were safe. “We have systems in place to revert back to old-fashioned record-keeping.” Lifesaving equipment was not affected. “Patients will come in in labour over the weekend and we will be well able to look after them.”
Source: The Guardian
