Dublin (AFP)
The Irish public health service, HSE Ireland, announced on Friday that it had had to shut down its entire computer system due to a "major" cyberattack using ransomware, or "ransomware".
"There is a significant ransomware attack on HSE's computer systems. As a precaution, we have shut down all of 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.
"It's a pretty serious problem," HSE chief executive Paul Reid told state broadcaster RTE.
"We have taken a precautionary measure to shut down many of our major systems in order to protect them," he explained.
According to Mr. Reid, the attack focuses on accessing data stored on central servers.
HSE apologized for the inconvenience caused to its patients and clarified that the vaccinations are not affected and "will proceed 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.
Dublin's Rotunda Maternity has warned that all outpatient visits have been canceled, except for women who are at least 36 weeks pregnant, "due to a serious computer problem".
Fergal Malone, manager in this maternity unit, explained to RTE that "what poses a problem are the computers that connect to electronic health records," she added.
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.
© 2021 AFP