He also said there would be no need for any member of the gang to come to Ireland as part of the preparation for the attack. While larger, richer countries might be expected to pay higher ransoms to protect their health services and therefore a more likely target, they would also be expected to have better resourced protection of critical national IT infrastructure, Mr Jacobs said, which could explain why Ireland was attacked. Mr Jacobs added it might be precisely because of the pandemic that the HSE was chosen. âThe more vulnerable you are, the more likely you might be considered to pay a ransom.â