Ireland’s health service has temporarily shut down its IT system on Friday to protect it from a “significant” ransomware attack.
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 country’s COVID-19 vaccination programme was not disrupted, but the attack was affecting IT systems serving all other local and national health provision, the head of the Health Service Executive (HSE) said.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said it had taken the precaution of closing down its systems to further protect them and assess the situation.
Fergal Malone, master of the Rotunda Hospital, said the attacks mean his hospital will for now “revert back to old-fashioned based record-keeping”.
The Rotunda said most outpatient visits had been cancelled for Friday but said anyone “with urgent concerns” should “attend as normal”.
