Health Service Executive cyberattack

On 14 May 2021, the Health Service Executive (HSE) of the Republic of Ireland suffered a major ransomware cyberattack that caused all of its IT systems nationwide to be shut down.^[1][2][3][4]

It was the most significant cybercrime attack on an Irish state agency.^[5] Bloomberg News reported that the attackers used the Conti ransomware.^[6] The group responsible was identified as a criminal gang known as Wizard Spider, believed to be operating from Russia.^[7][8][9] The same group is believed to have attacked the Department of Health with a similar cyberattack.

On 19 May, the Financial Times reviewed private data for twelve individuals which had appeared online as a result of the breach, with admission records and test results present in one case.^[10]

Background

The HSE was alerted to the attack at 4am on 14 May 2021.^[11] The attack affected both national and local systems, involved in all core services, with the HSE taking down their IT system in order to protect it from the attack and to give the HSE time to consider options.^[12]

The COVID-19 vaccination programme was not affected by the attack and proceeded as planned,^[6] however the COVID-19 general practitioner and close contact referral system was down, requiring these individuals to attend walk-in sites rather than attend an appointment.^[13][1]

The independent TD Cathal Berry stated that the National Cyber Security Centre which is responsible for the state's cyber security, had only 25 members of staff, a budget of €5 million a year, no dedicated premises, and that its position of Director had been vacant for a year due to its salary of €89,000 a year.^[14][15] The National Cyber Security Centre is under the remit of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.^[16]

Perpetrator & methodology

The attack was described as "human-operated" that used a new variant of the Conti ransomware.^[11]

The group responsible was identified as a criminal gang known as Wizard Spider, believed to be operating from Saint Petersburg, Russia.^[7][8][9]

Impact

The ransomware cyber attack has had a significant impact on hospital appointments across the country, with many appointments cancelled including all outpatient and radiology services.^[17]

Several hospitals described situations where they could not access electronic systems and records and had to rely on paper records.^[18] Some have warned of significant disruption with routine appointments being cancelled, including maternity checkups and scans.^[19]

The COVID-19 testing referral system was made offline, requiring individuals with suspected cases to attend walk-in COVID-19 testing centres, rather than attend an appointment.^[13] The COVID-19 vaccination registration portal was also made offline, but was later back online in the evening.^[20]

The Chief Operations Officer of the HSE – Anne O'Connor – said that some cancer and stroke services had been affected and that "the situation will be very serious if it continues into Monday". She said that the most serious concerns were with diagnostics, with radiology systems having gone down, affecting CT and other scans from going ahead.^[21] A large amount of out-patient appointments were also cancelled; most community health services are unaffected.^[22] O'Connor also reported that "we don't know what data has been taken", but "we know some data has been compromised", with the Data Protection Commissioner being alerted to the potential breach.^[23]

The HSE published a list of affected services on its website at lunchtime on 14 May 2021.^[24][25]

On 19 May, the Financial Times reviewed "samples" of private data of twelve individuals that was published online, including admission records and laboratory results for a man admitted to hospital for palliative care. In response, the National Cyber Security Centre stated criminal gangs "habitually release stolen information as a means of pressurising organisations into paying a ransom". The ContiLocker Team claimed to also have staff employment contracts, payroll data and financial statements, patient addresses, and patient phone numbers.^[10]

Hospital disruptions

Response

The HSE is working with the National Cyber Security Centre, An Garda Síochána, Irish Defence Forces, as well as various partners domestically and internationally, including Europol and Interpol.^[11][26]

The Minister of State for Public Procurement and eGovernment – Ossian Smyth – said that the attack was international, not espionage, and that "this is a very significant attack, possibly the most significant cyber attack on the Irish State."^[27]

The HSE claimed that it was a zero-day-threat and that there was no experience in how to respond to the attack.^[28] The Minister for Health – Stephen Donnelly – said that the attack had "a severe impact" on health and social care services.^[28] The Director-General of the HSE – Paul Reid – said that the attack will cost "tens of millions" to fix.^[23]

A number of news outlets, including Bleeping Computer, reported that a ransom figure of €16.5 million (about $20 million) was made, offering to decrypt data and to not publish "private data".^[29][30][31] Initially, the Business Post reported that a ransom demand of three bitcoin or €124,000 (about $150,000) was made.^[32] Taoiseach Micheál Martin stated the ransom would not be paid, with the attack instead being dealt with in a "methodical way".^[33][34]

American cybersecurity firms McAfee and FireEye were contracted by the HSE after the attack to mitigate the damage, and to monitor dark web sites for leaked data.^[35]

On 16 May, it was reported that the Department of Social Protection came under "sustained and fierce attack" but the highly-organised criminal group were unable to breach the security. The Department subsequently suspended its electronic communication channels with the HSE.^[36][31]

On 20 May, Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan said a helpline was to be set up to assist individuals who have had health information published as a result of the hack, and that social media companies were asked to not share information that has been released,^[37] with a High Court injuction obtained by the HSE to prohibit the sharing of this information.^[38][39] On the same day, it was reported that the organised cyber crime group provided a decryption key that could enable the HSE to recover their IT systems and the files that hackers locked and encrypted.^[40][41] Meanwhile, the public was advised by Gardaí to be aware of a number of call and text scams in the wake of the cyber attack amid warnings the delivery of care in the health service would be a high risk for weeks.^[42][43]

Department of Health cyberattack

On 16 May, two days after the HSE shut down its IT systems nationwide, the Department of Health confirmed that in the previous week it had been the victim of a separate cyber attack similar to the ransomware attack on the HSE, prompting the shutting down of much of its IT infrastructure.^[31][44][45]

According to RTÉ News, a digital note from the cyber crime group believed to be responsible was left on the Department's IT systems, similar to the one discovered at the HSE.^[46][47][48]

See also

• Colonial Pipeline cyberattack
• WannaCry ransomware attack - which affected the National Health Service in the United Kingdom

References

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