Contact will be made shortly with the people affected by a cyber-attack at the HSE. 

The breach occurred while law company EY was working with the health authority on developing MoveIT, a project to automate part of its recruitment process. 

It's likely information relating to 20 people involved has been accessed, including names, addresses, mobile numbers and place on the recruitment panel. 

HSE Chief Executive Bernard Gloster confirmed no patient data was compromised in the breach.

Smarttech247 Chairman Ronan Murphy said the attack was caused by Russian ransomware gang Clop.

Clop recently launched attacks on the BBC, Boots and British Airways, potentially compromising 100,000 employee payrolls and data.  

“This is an incredibly concerning development specifically relating to the HSE,” Mr Murphy said.  

Mr Murphy said speed is essential to prevent and combat cyberattacks, which the HSE could not do.  

“There was ample time to try and patch the vulnerability to stave off this attack,” he said. “It's about speed - this is a very dynamic environment and moves very quickly.” 

“You either win or lose in this game if you're not quick enough to implement the changes that need to be addressed in systems.” 

The HSE was previously the victim of a cyberattack in May 2021, which caused widespread disruption and saw information held on computer systems illegally accessed and copied. 

Last September, State spending watchdog the Comptroller and Auditor General said the HSE needs almost €657m over seven years to implement cyber security improvements.