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Officials from National Cyber Security Centre to address 'urgent' meeting of TDs and Senators over HSE hack

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications Networks meets this morning.

OFFICIALS FROM THE Department of Communications and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will appear before TDs and Senators today to field questions on the ongoing cyber attacks plaguing the HSE and Department of Health. 

The Joint Committee on Transport and Communication Networks will meet in private, at the Department of Communications’ request, at 9.30am to receive the latest update on the cyber attacks. 

The government has ruled out paying a ransom to the hackers who carried out the cyber attack, which continues to affect healthcare services across the country. 

In a statement last night, the government said it is taking a “determined and methodical approach to resolving the impact of the attack”, with the NCSC leading the efforts. 

It also described the ransomware attacks as “despicable crimes, most especially when they target critical health infrastructure and sensitive patient data”. 

Sinn Féin’s Ruairí Ó Murchú told The Journal that the committee had sought a meeting with the NCSC prior to the HSE hack after it had taken some time to establish whether that body fell under its remit.

He said that there were a number of questions to be asked alongside the matter of the recent cyber attack.

“It doesn’t have a director, has a €5 million budget and has a tiny staff,” Ó Murchú said. “We need to evaluate what the capacity of the NCSC is, along with how it interacts with gardaí and the Defence Forces to tackle these threats. We need to establish if it has the capacity to protect these systems.” 

Fine Gael TD Kieran O’Donnell, who heads the Oireachtas committee, said that he and members would have questions that should be urgently addressed by the NCSC.

He said: “Given the urgency of their ongoing work to repel these attacks and prevent future attacks, the Committee has requested this immediate meeting with NCSC and looks forwarding to engaging with them.

“The matters we will be raising and discussing with the NCSC include how these security breaches occurred, the strategy in place to fully repel the attacks and restore the normal operation of systems in the HSE and Department of Health and timescale involved, what is being done to secure other government departments and state agencies from similar cyber attacks, and the long-term strategy to deal with increased threats from cyber criminals and other hostile entities.”

Today’s private meeting is expected to be followed by a public meeting at a later date. 

O’Donnell said “whilst disappointing”, given the nature of the sensitivities around the cyber attacks, it would be held in private. 

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    Mute Niall Whyte
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    May 18th 2021, 7:49 AM

    No director, s post thats been open for over a year and never likely to be filled because of a ridiculously low salary for such a senior role. Less than 30 staff and no official premises. The NCSC hasn’t a chance.

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    Mute J Flood
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    May 18th 2021, 3:05 PM

    @Niall Whyte: amateur effort. Now seems surprising that only two attacks that we know of. Definitely a candidate for out-sourcing. Hello IBM!

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    Mute Stephen Campbell
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    May 18th 2021, 8:57 AM

    urgent meeting of TDs and Senators??? But why with them? They typically dont have the first clue about technology, never mind security technology, and to the level of detail covered here.

    If they did have a slight understanding or interest in protecting private information, we wouldn’t have this mess in the first place.

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    Mute michael macken
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    May 18th 2021, 11:01 AM

    @Stephen Campbell: they are experts at talking not IT

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    Mute Kevin50
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    May 18th 2021, 8:16 AM

    HSE and Civil Service in general have a poor record on anything IT, problem is that the decision makers generally don’t understand the problem they are trying to solve with the IT solution. Senior Management do not sent out proper systems analysts to ground level to work the problem out top down. Very often the people at the bottom know more about the problem than people at that top, As for Cyber security, this hack was caused by someone allowing the hackers in probably inadvertently however that is down to poor training within the HSE and lack of resources within the IT department providing proper protection. There are plenty of top class private cyber security companies in the country who could have protected the systems if the HSE wished to engage them

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    Mute Mary Nugent
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    May 18th 2021, 8:22 AM

    @Kevin50: might have been someone working from home, being lazy or careless.

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    Mute Alan Byrne
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    May 18th 2021, 8:42 AM

    @Mary Nugent: Nothing to do with working from home. With proper secure VPN connections, working from home is just as safe as being in the office.

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    Mute Michael Healy
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    May 18th 2021, 8:29 AM

    Love how after the horse has bolted, we are deciding cyber crime is something we really need to beef up in Ireland, it’s like that one house on a street that doesn’t really bother taking proper security measures at night time when everyone else has, and then when the house gets robbed, the people inside then decide maybe its time to invest in better security

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    Mute This time its personable!
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    May 18th 2021, 8:25 AM

    No point in this briefing, majority there will be thinking turn it on and off sure won’t that solve it and that it’s still MS DOS that’s used!

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    Mute Dangling Damo
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    May 18th 2021, 3:13 PM

    Are we not a world class technology hub or have we been misled for all these years.

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    Mute Ian Hoey
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    May 18th 2021, 3:39 PM

    I’m surprised this hasn’t happened long before now.

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    Mute J Flood
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    May 18th 2021, 3:07 PM

    Ah sure, jiggle the connections and re-boot it, it’ll be grand!

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    Mute John Smith
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    May 18th 2021, 10:59 AM

    Yipeee, were saved

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