The Irish health service shut down its computer programs on Friday following a "high-level" ransomware attack attack.
The Irish Health Service Executive said there was a "major ransomware attack" on its IT systems, without commenting in detail.
"We have taken steps to shut down all our IT systems to protect ourselves from these attacks and to allow (that) fully assess the situation with our security partners," the HSE tweeted on Friday.
"We apologize for the inconvenience caused to patients and the community and will provide further details as it becomes available."
The Irish immunization program has not been affected and recruitment will continue as planned, but the registration site has been taken offline. Doctors are also unable to send people for Covid-19 tests, so patients have been told to use mobility testing centers. The HSE said its ambulance service was operating normally.
Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, antenatal hospital, said all patient visits on Friday were canceled, except for women who are 36 weeks pregnant or later. All women's clinics have been canceled.
"It's very complicated," Paul Reid, chief executive officer of HSE, told RTE Radio 1. "This affects all of our national and local programs that will be involved in all of our services."
“We knew it at night and apparently we were working on it quickly. Most importantly it obviously contains this. But that’s what we would call a ransomware attack carried out by people when they wanted to gain access to data. ”
Rhlengware Attack
Rhlengware is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer program. The hackers demand a ransom payment - usually cryptocurrency - for restoring access.
In 2017, the UK National Health Service was one of several malware-infected organizations known as WannaCry.
Peter Carthew, director of public relations in the U.K. and Ireland at the security company Proofpoint, said health care organizations were "heavily targeted for ransomware attacks."
"They will have a high incentive to pay to return the programs immediately," Carthew said via email.
"Given the nature of the industry, health workers are often given a hard time, resulting in them clicking, downloading, and quickly managing email, while they may be victims of social media-induced email attacks," he added.
The news follows a major cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline in the U.S. Disabling gas delivery systems in Southeastern states. The Colonies resumed operations on Wednesday afternoon but said the delivery system would not return to normal in a few days. The company paid $ 5 million to the hijackers.
The attack is believed to have been carried out by the DarkSide hijacker. DarkSide is relatively new, but cyber security analysts believe it is dangerous. The group said on Wednesday it had attacked three other companies, despite international outcry over its attacks by the colonies.
The HSE was not the only organization to announce on Friday that it had been hit by a ransomware attack.
Toshiba Tec, a subsidiary of Japanese technology agency Toshiba, said its European business was the victim of a ransomware attack on May 4, The company said the attack came from DarkSide.
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