The Health Service Executive (HSE), which is responsible for healthcare and social services across all of Ireland has been targeted by significant ransomware attack. It’s currently not known what variant of ransomware has attacked HSE or how it infiltrated the network.

Ransomware is a form of malware that cyber criminals use to encrypt networks then demand a payment – often in Bitcoin – in exchange for the decryption key. Ransom demands can reach millions of dollars.

HSE said on Twitter, “There is a significant ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems. We have taken the precaution of shutting down all our IT systems in order to protect them from this attack and to allow us fully assess the situation with our own security partners.” They also said “We apologise for inconvenience caused to patients and to the public and will give further information as it becomes available.”

According to The Irish Times, Reid told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the attack was “significant” and “human operated”, but that no ransom demand had yet to be received.

“There has been no ransom demand at this stage. The key thing is to contain the issue,” he said.

Affected activities:

According to HSE Ireland’s COVID-19 vaccination programme is not affected by the ransomware incident and the National Ambulance Service is operating as normal.

Some outpatient appointments are being cancelled because of the cyberattack – Rotunda Hospital Dublin. The Hospital provides maternity, neonatal and gynaecology care, informed that unless women are 36 weeks pregnant or later, “Due to a serious IT issue all outpatient visits are cancelled”.

Although the variant of ransomware is not know but Paul Reid, chief executive of the HSE, has said the health service is working with the defence forces, the gardaí – the Irish police – and third-party cybersecurity experts in response to the attack.

General points to mitigate Ransomware Attack:

• Avoid clicking on links in spam messages or on unknown websites.
• Avoid opening any dubious-looking attachments. To make sure the email is trustworthy, pay close attention to the sender and check that the address is correct. Never open attachments that prompt you to run macros to view them. If the attachment is infected, opening it will run a malicious macro that gives malware control of your computer.
• Never connect USB sticks or other storage media to your computer if you do not know where they came from. Cybercriminals may have infected the storage medium and placed it in a public place to entice somebody into using it.
• Keep your programs and operating system up to date. This makes it harder for cyber -criminals to exploit vulnerabilities in your programs.
• To minimize the risk of downloading ransomware, never download software or media files from unknown sites.
• To stay protected, avoid using public Wi-Fi for sensitive transactions or use a secure VPN service.