HSE wasn't sought out for special treatment, it just happened to be a suitable target

There is wishful thinking that everything will be all right and nothing too serious will happen to a small country like Ireland. From Storm Ophelia to Covid-19 and now the cyberattack, this thinking is wrong

HSE chief executive Paul Reid. The HSE has risen to the challenge of Covid-19; it will rise to the challenge of the cyberattack also. File picture: Leon Farrell

The cyberattack on the HSE has proven to be an unwelcome wake-up call for the entire country. But it should come as no surprise: The HSE has been warned before, most notably, as reported in this paper, by Bruce Schneier at the Web Summit in December 2020. 

There is a saying, attributed to former FBI director Robert Mueller, that there are two types of companies, those that have been hacked and those that will be hacked. So, why was the HSE caught napping? And is it the HSE’s fault?