Results 2,781-2,800 of 2,990 for speaker:Ossian Smyth

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Chair. We meet against the backdrop of the significant ransomware attack on the HSE that has seriously impacted on the ability of our hospitals and wider health services to provide essential services to our citizens and on the front-line staff in the health service who have been working under extraordinary pressure over the last 14 months since the start of the pandemic. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I thank Senator Dooley. He is absolutely right that cybersecurity is a journey, and not a destination. I will start with the Senator's question on what vulnerabilities might have shown up that we might have protected against. That question will be analysed as a result of the three inquiries that will go on. Clearly, the focus right now is on resolving the problems with the HSE's network...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I will start by saying that the salary offered originally was not €89,000. To correct the record, it was in the range of €106,000 to €127,000. Second, the figures discussed at the committee yesterday are far in excess of the salaries paid to any other national cybersecurity centre of comparable size across Europe. We discussed that with our partners yesterday....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: No. I am happy that the people who are doing those jobs are extremely skilled and well able to do them. The jobs are not directly comparable. The set of obligations and the compensation one gets in a commercial company are very different to what happens in the context of the Government. There will be no penny-pinching here. It is not the case that we will underpay or try to get a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: We did receive applications. The person who was selected and who went through the process knowing what the salary was eventually decided, for personal reasons, not to proceed with taking up the job.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: Approximately three months ago. It is a new position. The idea of having a director of the National Cyber Security Centre was a new position created at the end of last year. The initial candidate who went for it decided not to take up the offer. We will go back out to the market. We will be looking for somebody and will be offering a higher salary. I have not decided on that yet and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: Exactly, it will be a higher grade.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I do not have those figures to hand but I would be very happy to provide the committee with a list. I presume the positions have openly known salaries that a matter of public record.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I am, but the decision will not be mine alone. I will go back to discuss it with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath. He will certainly want to know about it. Then it must go to the Government. A memo will go to Cabinet asking it to agree to the appointment. It is not solely at my discretion but I will make a recommendation on it. I will take into...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: In the next few weeks.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: Our current funding is approximately €7 million, including pay and non-pay for this year. This is a considerable increase on last year. The €50 million figure quoted is, I believe, based on a per capitacomparison with the UK. Clearly, the UK is in a completely different situation. It is a nuclear power, it has a different type of security apparatus, it has the Government...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: This is exactly why we carried out a capacity review beginning at the start of the year. An external consultancy looked at what we are spending, to compare it with other countries and to tell us how much we should be spending ongoing over the next five years. I have not seen the report yet and I will have a lot more information about that when I do see it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: Yes. The cybersecurity budget was tripled last year and I would imagine that it will go up again next year. This reflects increasing threats and increasing numbers of people going online. It also reflects the increasing difficulty in trying to deal with cybercriminals. It is an increase in budget and it is an evolving market. Certainly, we will see an increase in this years' budget. Of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: One of the reasons the budget was increased was a projected increased capital spend, which is to provide a new headquarters for the National Cyber Security Centre. They have identified a location for that and are working with the OPW in that regard. This will provide a joint security operations centre, which is where the CSIRT-IE incidence response team can be gathered together when there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: That is a good question. On EU legislation there is the directive on security of network and information systems, NIS, which has been transposed into Irish law. There is a new NIS directive, NIS 2, coming. That is part of the legislative agenda. We also planned in the 2019 strategy to have primary legislation to deal with cybersecurity. That is being developed at the moment. That is on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Senator. One of the things the capacity review does is that it benchmarks Ireland against other countries, particularly against those of similar size, to see how we stack up. That is going to be of interest. Second, every country obviously has different needs. They are protecting different things. I understand approximately one third of European data is stored in Ireland. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: We do. It is a normal part of security practice to, for example, send an email to everybody in an organisation and see what proportion of them click on the link in an email that is trying to phish or store information. Typically the results of that, even in software companies that are very advanced, is between 5% and 10% of staff members still click on the link. One’s security team...