The Health Service Executive has been fined \u20ac300,000 by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) over a data breach at the Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore.<\/p>\n
The DPC launched an investigation following a ransomware attack on the laboratory information system in the hospital.<\/p>\n
The breach was detected in November 2018.<\/p>\n
The HSE estimated that the personal data of around 84,000 people was affected.<\/p>\n
Attackers gained access to computers that stored and processed laboratory results of patients’ diagnostic tests, and used that access to encrypt patients\u2019 personal data.<\/p>\n
The inquiry examined the HSE\u2019s technical and organisational measures for ensuring the security of processing personal data on the systems that were attacked.<\/p>\n
The DPC found a number of breaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by the HSE.<\/p>\n
“While there was no clear evidence that the attackers had exfiltrated clinical data, a forensic report on the breach was not able to exclude the possibility of such action,” said DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle.<\/p>\n
“The sensitive nature of the personal data, and the large number of persons potentially affected therefore, posed risks to the clinical care of patients, and of disclosure and misuse of their personal data.”<\/p>\n
“The DPC acknowledges the considerable improvements made by the HSE in the intervening period of time since the breach, and its commitment to ongoing improvements,” Mr Doyle said.<\/p>\n
One GDPR infringement related to a failure by the HSE to ensure security of personal data using appropriate technical and organisational measures.<\/p>\n
The investigation found that the HSE had not ensured that agreements with third parties that processed personal data on its behalf included sufficient safeguards.<\/p>\n
The DPC also found that the HSE had failed to provide all required information to people affected by the breach.<\/p>\n
As well as fines totalling \u20ac300,000, the HSE was ordered to implement specified policies and procedures intended to ensure appropriate security of processing of personal data.<\/p>\n
The HSE said it accepts the findings of the inquiry.<\/p>\n
“The ransomware attack was an isolated incident which was prevented from spreading any further than the lab system at Midland Regional Hospital,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“There was no adverse clinical impact as clinicians could revert to a paper-based record system.”<\/p>\n
“In 2018 we took immediate action implementing measures to harmonise and standardise the standalone system, by integrating it into the wider HSE infrastructure,” they added.<\/p>\n
The HSE said it has and continues to invest significantly in its cyber capability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health Service Executive has been fined \u20ac300,000 by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) over a data breach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-502452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}