‘Who’s the boss?’ Confusion goes on over hack response
THE Government is in a state of chaos over the cyberattack on the health service, with ministers claiming they’re not sure who is in charge of handling the crisis.
Acting Justice Minister Heather Humphreys, who has been sharply criticised for her underwhelming response, has insisted that Communications Minister Eamon Ryan is in charge.
But other ministers believe Junior Minister Ossian Smyth is the go-to person on the issue.
One Cabinet member told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The absence of a senior figure is a real failure of communications. The public need a recognisable face to provide leadership and guidance. Instead, the Government is putting out junior ministers.’
When asked by RTÉ’s Katie Hannon yesterday about who is actually in charge of the Government’s response, Junior Minister Niall Collins said: ‘The Government is collectively in charge of it.’
Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shorthall criticised the confusion, saying: ‘It took two days for a minister to emerge.’
One Cabinet member admitted that ‘the optics are wretched’, adding: ‘Who is the boss? We don’t know. It’s hardly inspirational leadership.’
Despite his junior ministerial performance, Government sources have praised Mr Smyth, the Junior Minister for Public Procurement and eGovernment, for his performance over the past week. One senior source said: ‘It is quite clear Ossian Smyth is in charge, he has done a fantastic job... He is the go-to minister on this issue.’
However, anger is growing over the lack of comprehensive response from Eamon Ryan, whose Communications Department oversees the
National Cyber Security Committee, the State agency tasked with dealing with cyberattacks. One minister commented: ‘It’s just our luck – the weakest link in Government is supposedly in charge of the greatest security crisis to hit the State.’
The uncertainty at the heart of government comes against a backdrop of growing foreboding over the cyber terrorists’ plans.
Labour leader Alan Kelly warned the clean-up of the current debacle could cost more than €100m.
One minister who spoke to the MoS this weekend said they are bracing themselves for ‘a black cyber Monday’, after the hackers gave a deadline of tomorrow before they release data unless the ransom is paid.
The minister added: ‘Justice in particular have a big responsibility to ensure the public are aware of the threat and what needs to be done.’ Another minister warned: ‘We need to ensure everyone is very vigilant on Monday, simple things such as people knowing if you get a phone call from the HSE looking for your bank details to provide a refund that it is too good to be true.’
Health Minister Stephen Minister last nigt insisted ‘good progress is being made with the restoration of HSE and hospital IT’.
He said on Twitter: ‘The Ministerial Cyber Attack Taskforce continues to meet on a daily basis to review progress with the response to last week’s cyber-attack on the HSE and to coordinate ongoing actions across Government . ... The HSE and IT experts have developed and tested a new version of the decryption tool, and a structured and controlled deployment is now underway across the core network and devices across the system.’
The minister said levels of disuption to hospital serivces next week ‘are expected to be similar to those this week’.
‘Ensure everyone is vigilant on Monday’