May 14, 2021 - World

Ireland's health care system targeted by ransomware attack

Jacob Knutson

St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin in January 2021. Photo: Patrick Bolger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Ireland's public health care service preemptively deactivated its IT services on Friday after it was targeted by a ransomware attack, according to the AP.

Why it matters: The attack on Ireland's Health Service Executive, and other recent high-profile cyber extortion attempts, demonstrates how vulnerable critical infrastructure is to criminal hacking groups.

What they're saying: “We’ve taken a precautionary measure to shut down a lot of our major systems to protect them,” Paul Reid, the head of the HSE, told broadcaster RTE.

“We are at the very early stages of fully understanding the threats, the impact and trying to contain it.”
"This is having a severe impact on our health and social care services today, but individual services and hospital groups are impacted in different ways," Ireland's Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said in a tweet.

The big picture: The attack and the resulting IT issues have forced hospitals to cancel numerous appointments, though it is unclear how widespread the disruption was.

Coronavirus testing and vaccination appointments were not disrupted by the ransomware attempt, though a maternity hospital in Dublin canceled most of its routine appointments because of IT issues, according to AP.

Go deeper: The ransomware pandemic

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Ireland's health care system targeted by ransomware attack

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