HSE moves to protect its systems

THE HSE has been working frantically to protect their systems from the global cyber-attack that began on Friday.

Staff were contacted by text over the weekend advising them that all email services had been suspended as a result of the WannaCry ransomware.

The texts, which were seen by this newspaper, initially advised staff that all external incoming mail would be disabled. This was later updated to say all internal and external email would be affected.

The first text which was sent over the weekend read: ‘CYBER THREAT. On Monday morning the network will be very slow. External incoming mail will be disabled on all mobile machines. Remain vigilant to any emails that look in any way different.’

The second text which was issued on Monday morning read: ‘CYBER SECURITY ALERT. Please note all email services are suspended. Internal email is unavailable. It is very important that you DO NOT access private web email accounts (eircom.net, Gmail, Yahoo etc) from HSE networks’.

The HSE issued six steps for its staff to follow yesterday morning: l Turn on your computers, but don’t log on immediately. Don’t open email. When you turn on your machine, you should allow it to pull down the anti-virus solutions that have been deployed over the weekend.

l If your colleagues aren’t at work today, please reboot their computers on their behalf.

l Stay away from email until further notice.

l Even when you do regain access to your email, you should show increased digital vigilance. l It’s important to think before you click – if you don’t know the source, don’t click it. l Contact IT immediately if your machine operates on Windows XP or you haven’t turned on your computer in the past seven days. Cllr Ger Carthy, pictured left, who works as a paramedic with the HSE, said that security systems were being upgraded and said the most important thing was that patient care and appointments weren’t being disrupted by the ransomware.