Cyber ​​attack will force Ireland to pay “tens of millions” of euros in ransom: they hacked its health system

The Irish government assured on Monday that “repairing” the damage caused by the cyberattack that suffered the computer system of the National Health Service (HSE) last week will cost “tens of millions of euros”.

Its CEO, Paul Reid, explained today that in addition to the economic cost, The “data hijacking attack” detected last Thursday continues to cause “serious disruption” to the HSE, which has since shut down many of its computer systems, causing thousands of appointments and health services to be canceled.

The official said the cyberattack was a “Very serious and sophisticated blow” targeting “each” of the 2000 systems that make up the HSE computer network, although experts have already established over the weekend “a first base for its reconstruction” in the coming days.

However, he warned that It is still too early to determine the “total impact” the attack will have on each of these systems and to ensure that they “will be stable” by the end of this week.

Reid also said he did not know how much money the hackers were asking for to “divulge” all the stolen information, because it The issue is now in “the hands of the national security teams”.

In this regard, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin stressed that the government “will not pay any ransom”.

“It will take several days to assess the impact. The important thing is that people cooperate with the HSE, that the emergency services are functioning and that the vaccination program against covid-19 has not been interrupted, ”said Martin.

Reid said today that the priority now is for up to 19 hospitals across the country to reactivate “independent computer systems” and regain “some connectivity in HSE systems”.

At the same time, he added, the HSE is working on reopening “systems for diagnosis, oncology and patient laboratory results”, as well as “internal messaging services”.

The serious incident comes four years after a similar attack caused serious problems and disruption within the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). At that time, the virus, called WannaCry, forced to cripple the activity of nearly 600 health centers across the country, since some of the systems ended up being infected with the computer virus and others as a protective measure.

WHAT IS “RAMSONWARE” OR CYBER KIDNAPPING

Word “Ransomware” comes from the English ransom (ransom) and the commodity (software or computer program). These are programs used by hackers that encrypt files with information and force their users to pay a ransom sum of money to return the files to their owners.

Typically, hijackers take control of computers or electronic devices by taking advantage of loopholes in the Internet. This happens when the victim visits an affected web page or opens an email that prompts them to go to a link or download an attachment.

In seconds, the program can be implemented. Once installed, it has no viral load, which makes it undetectable. It is later that the viral load is downloaded.

(with EFE information)

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