Results 2,301-2,320 of 2,990 for speaker:Ossian Smyth

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Cybersecurity Policy (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has a broad remit across the cyber security of Government ICT and critical national infrastructure. The NCSC has three main roles: national incident response; information sharing; and Building Resilience. The NCSC supports Government Departments and other public bodies to improve the resilience and security of their IT systems to better protect...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) are a key element of the NBP providing high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network. My Department has now prioritised primary schools with no high speed broadband and continues to work with the Department of Education in this regard. An acceleration of this aspect of the National Broadband Plan will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Chairman and members for inviting me to attend before the committee today and answer questions. I am joined today by Mr. Richard Browne, acting director of the NCSC, and Mr. Peter Hogan, principal officer in the Department's cybersecurity and Internet policy division. I am delighted to have this opportunity to present to the committee on the capacity review of the NCSC, which...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Deputy for his questions. The capacity review was ordered to assess what additional resources were needed by the National Cyber Security Centre in the face of an escalating level of cybersecurity threats. I am sure that the Deputy is aware that the volume of cybersecurity attacks that are happening around the world greatly increased even before the pandemic but during the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Deputy again. His first question is whether the Government accepts the recommendations of the report and the answer is we do. He further asks if we accept the recommendations for the additional staffing and the decision was made at Cabinet earlier this year to go beyond that level. I recommended a higher staffing complement and this was accepted. It will be a challenge to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The first question is how much money is needed for a new cybersecurity headquarters and there are two parts to the answer to this. First, we are building an interim headquarters to move into next year and then there is the permanent building, which will be a brand-new building which is being constructed for the entire Department. One floor of that will be used for the NCSC and will be built...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I do not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: It will probably be in the single-digit millions. The Deputy also asked about comparisons with other countries. There were comparisons with other European countries and with countries outside of Europe. As the Deputy will appreciate, when looking at the weaknesses and strengths of cybersecurity centres in other countries, the details are probably not something that we want to publish to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: It is early days to say that. Part of the response to this is that two reports have been commissioned. The HSE commissioned a report for its board from consultants. There is also a report into the origins of this and exactly what happened. It is being compiled by an international security company, Mandiant. That will also provide information. At the same time, an investigation by An...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The NCSC has a policy of trying to publish as much information as possible on its website. This is open communication. Most of what is being done is not secret and does not need to be hidden from people. Most of the information about how to protect yourself in terms of cybersecurity is open, public information that everybody can read about. If one goes on the NCSC's website, one will see...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: There definitely were people in the HSE who were working on cybersecurity. They were in a much stronger position a year ago than they were two years previously. They had been working closely with the NCSC to improve their security. They had been carrying out risk assessments. It is an enormous and complex organisation, however. There are 100,000 staff, one third of whom are contractors....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: They have made enormous progress. They had already made enormous progress before the attack. Obviously, the attack has brought into focus the importance of the HSE's IT infrastructure. We saw happened when its information systems were down. Hospitals were able continue to function, but everything was much slower. I understand that, for example, people in accident and emergency departments...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I thank Senator Horkan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I will start with the question about waiting lists. Waiting lists are an operational matter for the HSE and a strategic matter for the Department of Health. They are outside of my remit to some extent. From an IT point of view, a waiting list attaches to a particular consultant and consultants are attached to particular hospitals. This means that there are multiple waiting lists around...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The Senator is right. There was an enormous patriotic response from security researchers, members of the HSE and medical staff. They assembled in an emergency room in the ballroom of the Citywest Hotel and they worked day and night for weeks on end until they were exhausted to try to fix these systems because they knew it was a life and death situation. I went to visit them out there with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: This point is about providing a statutory basis for what we do. We have the rule of law. We are dealing with people who are criminals. We want to ensure that what we are doing has a sound legal basis and that we are not descending to their level. The idea is to ensure that we have an absolutely solid legal basis for everything we are doing and that people responding to the NCSC know that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The heads of the Bill have not been published yet. There is a reference, however, to whether we need to provide for some intelligence capacity in this regard and some legal underpinning to that. It is not possible to gather information without having some kind of legal basis to do that in the first place. The role of the NCSC is to disrupt attacks. I refer to a situation where a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I do not think there is any recommendation for offensive capacity. There is a line there. I would not, however, rule out the ability to be able to disrupt an attack. It is a different situation when you are being attacked and you need to defend yourself and disable the attacking party. It is a different context from getting up in the morning and attacking somebody else.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The role of An Garda Síochána is clear. The members of the force carry out criminal investigations. This is another area where many crimes are now starting to occur and where it will be necessary for the Garda to operate in. My experience is that the members of the force are very skilled in this area. At least one garda is posted in the NCSC. The Garda carried out forensic...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Ossian Smyth: Again, the Defence Forces have one person posted within the NCSC. There is co-operation with other military intelligence people and-or with people working in cyberdefence to protect military installations from being attacked. Cyberattack can, in addition to land, sea and air attacks, be seen as a fourth vector of attack. Any modern military force must have a defensive capacity in this...