RTE reports:
The Health Service Executive has temporarily shut down its IT system following what it described as a “significant ransomware attack”.
The health body said it had taken the precaution of shutting down its systems to further protect them, and to allow it to assess the situation.
The issue has led to Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital cancelling most outpatients visits today….. The National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street in Dublin has also said there will be ‘significant disruption” to its services today…. Crumlin Hospital, Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), said its IT systems are compromised but it is working to adjust using risk assessment and manual paper-based processes.
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Once again, criminals put care and lives at risk. And what will we find when the forensics and analysis are completed? Will we find that the HSE didn’t have basic protections in place, or that they had but were successfully attacked anyway? This has been described as a pretty sophisticated attack. But was it?
At this point, they say there has been no ransom demand and the type of malware has not been revealed.