Ireland’s health service forced to drop up to 80% of appointment due to Conti ransomware attack

On the 14th of March 2021, Health Service Executive of Ireland, which is responsible for the provision of health and personal social services in the Republic of Ireland had to take all its IT systems offline after experiencing a Conti ransomware attack early in the morning that left Ireland’s health system paralyzed as up to 80% of appointments had to be dropped by the executive.

 
This ransomware attack has just happened after the DarkSide ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline in the United States and now is being called the worst cyber-attack against Ireland in its history. The National Cyber Security Centre Ireland had discovered Cobalt Strike beacons on the systems which would suggest that it was used to move laterally within the environment prior to executing the Conti ransomware.

The result of the attack was it had a huge impact on emergency rooms and appointments for radiation treatments, MRIs, gynecological visits, endoscopies, and many other health services. Because of the lock out and shutdown of the systems, results and analysis of Covid-19 tests were delayed, although the vaccine system had not been impacted.