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“There’s no guarantee that when the ransom is paid or partially paid that they are going to be honourable and release the encryption keys to you. Therefore, the only resource for organisations is to rebuild their infrastructure. That’s where the pain really starts. Everything has to be cleaned, all devices, all servers.”
That’s a process that can take weeks. Back-ups need to be checked to make sure they are clean of the ransomware before systems are restored. Attackers could have been in systems for weeks, warned Conor Scolard, technical director of Ekco Ireland, and they may have infiltrated the back-ups too.
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Precautionary measure
The first step was taking systems offline as a precautionary measure. HSE staff were told not to turn on work laptops or computers, and those who had already done so were told to turn them off.
âThatâs the right approach,â said Conor Scolard, technical director of Ekco Ireland, who has been involved in the incident response of many high-profile ransomware attacks in Ireland in the last year. âThey take everything down and treat everything as potentially compromised. From there, you have to work your way through.â
It also left hospitals and health services without access to vital information, such as patient records and test results. While some appointments continued, patients were warned to expect disruption as staff turned to paper records where available â which was likely to result in delays. Virtual and online appointments were cancelled. Agencies such as Tusla were also affected as access to the core systems was offline.