People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny has said that the HSE and the Department of Health have failed to secure their Information Technology infrastructure and data following the cyber-attack last week and have major questions to answer.
The result is that the health service is out of action for days, possibly weeks. Clinical settings have been turned upside down as staff scramble to get critical information around the health system, pen and paper is used to record information. Patients have been affected by cancelled appointments.
Gino Kenny TD said:
“The situation is very grim and serious questions need to be answered. People will want to know exactly what data has been compromised and are the public put at risk as a result? Medical data is extremely sensitive and can be a very lucrative asset for those who want to sell it. The HSE need to let people know and to contact and inform the people affected.
“Frontline staff will want to know what plans are in place to recover the systems and how much longer they will have to operate without them. Patients will want to know contingency plans to ensure the continuum of care. The public need reassurance that the Department of Health and the HSE take cyber security and patient data security seriously.
“We also need the HSE to outline the situation in regard to our funding of cyber-security protection and we need to know why the role of Director of the National Cyberspace Centre has remained unfilled for a year?”