At present, the extent of the damage from this ransomware attack is unknown.

Hackers diversify their targets to extract the most money: companies, infrastructure, entire cities and hospitals.

The latest episode to date is the cyber attack on the Irish health service that HSE Ireland announced on Friday.

The organization confirmed that its entire computer system had to shut down due to a “major” cyber attack using ransomware or “ransomware”.

“Very serious”

“Significant ransomware attacks are taking place on HSE’s computer systems. We have taken precautionary measures to shut down all our computer systems to protect them from this attack and to allow us to fully assess the situation with our own security partners.” The organization tweeted.

“This is a very serious issue,” HSE chief executive Paul Reid told state broadcaster RTE. “We have taken precautionary measures to shut down many of our important systems to protect them,” he explained.

He said the attack was focused on accessing data stored on central servers.

HSE apologized for the inconvenience to patients and clarified that the immunizations had not been affected and would “proceed as planned.”