Health service 'functioning like it did in the 1970s' after cyberattack

Ireland's health service is scrambling to restore its systems after the ransomware attack by online criminals — and among the remedial actions is the reformatting of 150,000 laptops. 

The massive cyberattack on the HSE has left the health service “functioning like it did in the 1970s and 1980s”, with a wholesale reformatting of 150,000 laptops required to steady the ship.

The attack has left health services crippled in the face of a ransom demand from an international criminal gang, an act which Tánaiste Leo Varadkar described as “a heinous crime”.