Ireland: Health service IT systems forced to shut down after ‘fairly sophisticated’ cyber attack


Health service IT systems have been shutdown today following a cyber attack that the HSE believes was carried out by international criminals seeking to extort money .

The HSE said the main attack began at around 4.30am on Friday and that IT staff switched off systems as a “precaution” in order to protect data and give time to “fully assess the situation with our own security partners”.

As a result there are expected to be cancellations and disruption to services at a number of hospitals. Further clarification on the extent of the problem is expected later.

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Source: The Irish Times