Irish Consumers Face Tough Challenges in Dealing with the Aftermath of Dark Web Monitoring Scams

After a cyberattack on the Irish Health Service, Irish consumers are being affected by dark web monitoring. The health service was targeted by ransomware, which resulted in the theft of personal data from over half a million patients.

In response, the government has announced that it will be increasing its use of dark web monitoring to prevent future attacks. This decision has raised concerns among consumers about their privacy and data security.

 It is becoming more apparent that our data is being monitored and collected by unauthorised third parties without our consent or knowledge. This is a huge violation of our privacy, and we need to take action to protect our rights!

How Irish Consumers Are Affected By Dark Web Monitoring

According to a report by businessnews.ie, a well-known Irish drug lord is selling fake Covid vaccination certificates on the dark web to people who want to travel abroad but refuse to be vaccinated.

The drug lord sells the fake document for as much as €350 each. This is just one example of how Irish consumers are being affected by dark web monitoring.

The government has also announced that it will be using dark web monitoring to track down people who have illegally downloaded copyrighted material. This could result in fines or even jail time for those caught.

With the increased use of monitoring the dark web, there is a risk that more personal data will be collected without people’s consent or knowledge. This could lead to identity theft, fraud, or other crimes.

We should only use trusted websites and services, and we should be careful about the information we share online. We also need to be aware of the signs of identity theft and fraud to report it if it happens to us.

What Are The Aftermaths Of Cyber Attacks On Irish Health Service?

A report by Cyberlaw revealed that at least three-quarters of the HSE’s IT servers had been decrypted, and 70% of computing devices had been reintroduced to service. On the other hand, the HSE systems are expected to take up to six months to recover fully.

During the crisis, HSE personnel had to rely on paper records and could not access email; nevertheless, hospitals’ emergency services remained operational, the countrywide Covid-19 vaccination program was not disrupted, and testing continued to run smoothly.

Patients’ and staff’s personal and medical information was collected, with a minor amount of data (including private material on 520 individuals) being made public on the dark web.

The hackers had supplied the HSE with a decryption key that would enable them to restore their IT systems and files encrypted and locked by the attackers. The HSE announced that it would create a cyber security system to monitor its networks and go through extensive procurement procedures in response to the event.

In response to the assault, the government has announced that it will be increasing its use of dark web monitoring. This decision has generated worries among customers about their privacy and data security. The government has also promised new legislation that would make it easier to prosecute cybercriminals.

Conclusion

The cyberattack on the Irish Health Service has had some consequences for patients and staff. The incident has affected numerous Irish hospitals, and many outpatient clinics and healthcare services have been canceled because the HSE’s national and local networks have been nearly totally shut down.

As a response, the government declared its intention to be more vigilant with its utilisatsion of monitoring the dark web to protect vulnerable consumers from becoming cyberattack victims. This will likely affect how Irish consumers use the internet and their privacy.

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A quarter of Irish businesses concerned about losing data to dark web. #DarkWeb #IrishBiz

Logicalis Ireland, the IT solutions and managed services provider, today announces the results of a survey which explored the barriers, challenges and concerns around cloud adoption in Ireland. The research, which involved more than 100 IT decision makers across Irish businesses, found that almost a quarter (24%) are concerned about losing data to the dark web.

The study, carried out by TechPro on behalf of Logicalis Ireland, revealed that the three biggest concerns in relation to cloud security are data breaches (70%), human error (60%) and permanent data loss (44%). Furthermore, almost three quarters of respondents are more worried about cloud security threats in 2020.

Security was found to be the leading barrier to cloud adoption with 56% of IT decision-makers citing it. Other top barriers are lack of in-house knowledge and skills (38%), budget constraints (37%), data compliancy concerns (35%) and lack of visibility of workloads/applications in the cloud (32%).

Public cloud (38%) is perceived as the IT environment that poses the greatest risk to security, followed by on-premises infrastructure (31%). Meanwhile, private cloud is considered the lowest risk (6%) among IT decision-makers.

Despite their concerns, over half (55%) of Irish businesses do not have an integrated cloud security plan in place. Furthermore, 13% admitted their organisations have no response plans in place for security incidents, with a further 26% only acting reactively as and when incidents arise.

Loman McCaffrey, Sales Manager, Logicalis Ireland

Loman McCaffrey, Sales Manager, Logicalis Ireland, said: “Of course IT decision-makers should be worried about incidents which could result in data breaches and data loss – it’s good that they are because data has huge value and threats are evolving as quickly as technology is.

“However, Irish businesses shouldn’t let these security concerns and other challenges – such as lack of visibility, rising costs and lack of in-house resources – delay their adoption of cloud and hinder the potential growth of their company. It comes down to choosing the right solution.

“As well as maximising security, organisations need to consider platforms that also help to keep costs under control, support staff productivity and enable better management of data, regardless of the cloud environment they’re using.

“Furthermore, as more organisations move their workloads into the cloud, it’s vital they have a clearly defined and continually evolving security strategy that covers all aspects of the business, including staff training to reduce the risk of falling victim to cybersecurity attacks. Otherwise their fears could be realised.”