The HSE (Ireland not England, sorry) were informed last Friday May 15 of a ransomware event. They immediately shut down their entire computer network systems. Followed by person-to-person phone calls to every 'unit' to say 'Shut down your computers - all of them - turn them off right now, and do not restart them until further notice.

Allegedly the ransom sought is €20 million or €35 million - depending on sources. We (the public) have not been informed yet exactly what the ransom is for. Is all the data scrambled so the HSE must buy a key to get it back? Or has it been 'stolen' and subject to publication on the web? Nobody knows. €35 million would be cheap if that was the end of it.

What we do know is that this has totally crippled the day-to-day operation of the Health service. The only things that are functioning 'normally' are A&E, Oncology and Dialysis - Truly essential and time critical services. Functionally, everything is being done with pen and paper as it was in the 1980's; no online access to patient's history, no email lab reports or radiology, no online access to . . . anything at all.

Pharmacy is largely OK once they get the prescription from the physician on paper (or by fax - remember them?) or have it on file. They are independent businesses with their own IT systems so not hijacked.

(They've known about this vulnerability for decades. The system is connected to the Internet!)

The HSE were informed last Friday May 15 of a ransomware event. They immediately shut down their entire computer network systems. Followed by person-to-person phone calls to every 'unit' to say 'Shut down your computers - all of them - turn them off right now, and do not restart them until further notice.

Allegedly the ransom sought is €20 million or €35 million - depending on sources. We (the public) have not been informed yet exactly what the ransom is for. Is all the data scrambled so the HSE must buy a key to get it back? Or has it been 'stolen' and subject to publication on the web? Nobody knows. €35 million would be cheap if that was the end of it.

What we do know is that this has totally crippled the day-to-day operation of the Health service. The only things that are functioning 'normally' are A&E, Oncology and Dialysis - Truly essential and time critical services. Functionally, everything is being done with pen and paper as it was in the 1980's; no online access to patient's history, no email lab reports or radiology, no online access to . . . anything at all.

Pharmacy is largely OK once they get the prescription from the physician on paper (or by fax - remember them?) or have it on file. They are independent businesses with their own IT systems so not hijacked.

(They've known about this vulnerability for decades. The system is connected to the Internet!)