Security News > 2021 > May > Hospitals cancel outpatient appointments as Irish health service struck by ransomware
Ireland's nationalised health service has shut down its IT systems following a "Human-operated" Conti ransomware attack, causing a Dublin hospital to cancel outpatient appointments.
The country's Health Service Executive closed its systems down as a precaution, local reports from the Irish public service broadcaster RTÉ said, reporting that Dublin's Rotunda Hospital had cancelled appointments for outpatients - including many for pregnant women.
There is a significant ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems.
Fergal Malone, chief of the Rotunda Hospital and a senior HSE bod, said: "There has been a significant ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems. They have taken the precaution of shutting down all their IT systems in order to protect them from this attack and to allow the HSE to fully assess the situation with their security partners. The HSE apologises for the inconvenience to patients and to the public."
"We have been the subject of a major ransomware attack it's what's known as a Conti human-operated attack to get access to data," Reid told the radio station.
"|Its connections to Ryuk ransomware are also significant as it has also gone after hospitals in the US and France.