Ireland Shuts Down Hospital Computer Systems Nationwide After Ransomware Attack
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File photo of the CEO of Ireland s Health Service Executive (HSE) Paul Reid (centre) and Chief of Staff of Ireland s Defence Forces, Vice Admiral Mark Mellett (left) with Irish Army cadets on March 13, 2020. (Photo: Paul Faith/AFP, Getty Images)
Ireland’s public health care system, known as the Health Service Executive or HSE, shut down all of its computer systems nationwide Friday after hospital administrators became aware of a cyberattack late Thursday.
The attack is being characterised as a ransomware hack, but it’s not yet clear if the hackers succeeded at acquiring enough data to hold hostage. Ransomware hackers will steal data that hasn’t been backed up sufficiently and refuse to return it until a certain amount of money has been paid, like in the Colonial Pipeline hack in the U.S. where nearly $US5 ($6) million was paid just yesterday.
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Thomas Clarke was the only U.S. citizen to be executed as a result of the 1916 Easter Rising - the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798.
“Clarke spent a good deal of time in America,” said journalist and historian Dermot McEvoy, “and he eventually became a citizen.”
Clarke is considered the real leader of the 1916 Easter Rising, despite his quiet somewhat meek persona.
“Padraig Pearse was the front man because he liked to make speeches,” McEvoy said. “Clarke worked behind the scenes. He was the man who organized everything.”
The six-day Rising took place during Easter Week 1916 against British rule after members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council (IRBMC), the Irish Volunteer Force, and the Irish Citizen Army successfully took over pre-selected buildings around Dublin with little resistance.