HSE to spend €33m on cyber security response

In May 2021 at the height of the covid pandemic, the HSE was stunned by a massive cyber-attack perpetrated by Russian hackers which saw the personal details of more than 100,000 patients and staff leaked, and the HSE’s digital systems negated completely.

The HSE is to spend €33m centralising and refining its response to cyber security incidents via a number of new public contracts.

The executive has tendered for both threat detection and response and extended detection and response services at an estimated value of €60m each according to its official documents; however it confirmed that the two contracts are expected to cost €33m over a five-year period.