The Irish public health service, HSE Ireland, announced Friday that it had to shut down its entire computer system due to a "
major
" cyberattack using
ransomware
, or "
ransomware
".
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“
There is a significant ransomware attack on HSE's computer systems. As a precaution, we have shut down all our computer systems to protect them from this attack and to allow us to fully assess the situation with our own security partners
, ”the organization tweeted. HSE apologized for the inconvenience caused to its patients and clarified that the vaccinations are not affected and "
will go as planned
".
Vaccination against Covid-19 is currently open to people over 50 in Ireland, where this disease has caused the death of 4,937 people according to the latest official figures released on Thursday. The cyberattack suffered by HSE uses ransomware, such as the one targeting Colonial Pipeline, the operator of the huge American oil pipeline which restarted its entire system Thursday evening after being paralyzed last weekend. The cyberattack was carried out by the criminal group DarkSide, US federal police said.
