A Garda probe has been launched into the hacking of a Health Service Executive contractor, which resulted in the contact details of more than 1,000 service users being compromised.The contractor was hacked on April 15 and the perpetrators are believed to have accessed the contact details of 1,119 service users. The HSE is working with An Garda Síochána and the Data Protection Commissioner in relation to the breach.
Almost five months later, the HSE is still working to restore some of its computer systems following the attack. “Restoration is both a technical and operational challenge and needs to be undertaken in a systemic and safe way. All of our corporate systems are restored, with some remediation work outstanding on corporate reporting systems.”
Asked whether the ransomware attack on May 14 could be connected to the hacking incident on a HSE service provider during the previous month, the spokeswoman declined to comment as the matter is currently the subject of a criminal investigation.Earlier this week, the head of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau confirmed that the servers of the gang behind the sophisticated ransomware attack had recently been seized by gardaí.
“We effectively took their servers, the mains and websites, and we put up our own alerts splashed screen with the Garda insignia basically warning any potential new victims that they should check their networks, that they may be compromised,” he said.