Conti ransomware gang to blame for Irish public health system cyberattack
Conti ransomware gang appears to be behind Ireland's Health Service Executive (HSE) ransomware attack, according to reports. HSE, a $25 billion public health system, shut down its IT systems to protect the service from further damage, switching to a paper-based system. Though life-saving equipment and COVID-19 vaccine programs were still operating, several healthcare practices across Ireland were forced to cancel low priority appointments.
The Irish National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), along with the HSE and partners, is leading on triage and investigation, and has activated its incident and crisis response procedures, providing ongoing support to the HSE. NCSC said it had detected suspicious activity on the network of the Department of Health (DoH), but was able to stop the attack before the ransomware executives. Leaders at the NCSC believe this attempted attack was part of the same campaign that affected HSE.