Results 2,801-2,820 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 Senator for his question. As I understand it, a voluntary hospital is an independent body, separate from the HSE, although greatly funded by the HSE. The Mercy University Hospital Cork had some systems that were tightly integrated with the HSE systems and that the attack spread into their systems,as a result. I do not think they were specifically targeted. There was no...

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

Ossian Smyth: Some hospitals were almost untouched. From talking to the IT staff in St. Vincent’s University Hospital, they never had to stop any of their systems. They managed to continue. I cannot imagine that they are going to be joining into any future injunctions. It is really a legal question for those hospitals. If the hospital is a separate, independent legal body and finds ransom notes...

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

Ossian Smyth: It does.

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

Ossian Smyth: I believe Deputy Ó Murchú has experience in the HSE and in IT so this is an area about which he knows something. He asked if the HSE is particularly at risk. It is a very large body. Whole hospital groups are at risk and part of the reason is that, by their nature, there are life-and-death situations going on all the time. There is a pandemic going on, staff are running around...

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

Ossian Smyth: Offensive capability.

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

Ossian Smyth: The NCSC has no mission to carry out offensive counterstrikes. That is not part of its function. It is there to provide advice, research, risk assessments and incident response. It is not going to hack the hackers back, if that is what the Deputy is asking. That would not come under my remit.

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

Ossian Smyth: The Garda and the Defence Forces both have a position within the NCSC. They have staff seconded into the NCSC so there is a connection between those organisations, which is very useful. I understand the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau has doubled its numbers and now has around 140 staff. A huge amount of cybercrime goes on. As everything is moving online, because life is moving online,...

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

Ossian Smyth: All of these organisations are required to carry out risk assessments, although not all of them were complete. Some organisations were engaging with the NCSC and explaining how far they had gotten. It is a co-operative thing. It is not about catching them out and clamping down on them; it is about us helping them to fill in those holes. All of those organisations would have been involved...

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

Ossian Smyth: The Deputy's first question was about whether the NCSC audits Government agencies. It does not. It also does not issue compliance orders against other Government agencies, on the basis that one Minister does not tell another Minister what to do. However, that does happen for organisations providing essential services, such as gas or electricity services. The operators of essential...

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

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Deputy for his questions. I know that he has experience in this Ministry. The first point I would make is that in respect of recruitment, the NCSC has told me that it has not had any difficulty in the past. It is recruiting both from the private and public sectors. There is an attraction to working in such an important and key role in defending the country in that way and...

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

Ossian Smyth: The Senator asked whether the data collected as part of vaccination was at risk, and he named some of the various data fields collected. To put the Senator's mind at rest, my understanding is they are collected by a system in the cloud developed very recently by IBM and they have not been affected by the hack and all of those data are safe. On the question as to whether we are at war, I...

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

Ossian Smyth: Certainly people consider more than money. We do have to pay good and adequate salaries but people are proud to work in the NCSC. They are protecting their country and their vital infrastructure, and they are co-operating with the security apparatus of other countries throughout the world. It is a high-status job and a job people are proud to do. There are more factors than just money...

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

Ossian Smyth: It has. It was at a dozen four years ago and we now have a headcount of 29. It will increase over the coming years. In 2017 it was 12 people, in 2019 it was 22 people and it is 29 in 2021. The capacity review projects an increasing number of staff over the coming four years. We must remember they are a very small number of the staff involved in cybersecurity in Ireland. Throughout the...

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

Ossian Smyth: The response was exemplary. It was immediately on site and connecting into the network and advising people. I had no sense at all there was an inadequate response or that it was unavailable to do it. I really felt it was very professional. It immediately brought in FireEye, the security consultancy from California with which it has an existing relationship. It is the organisation that...

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

Ossian Smyth: I do not accept Deputy Cathal Crowe's contention or premise that Ireland has proved to be the soft underbelly of European cybersecurity. Yes, we have sustained a significant attack and the attack is far worse than anything that has happened previously in Ireland but these type of attacks are happening throughout the world in countries that have an extensive security apparatus. For example,...

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

Ossian Smyth: It is not a choice. We are going to do both. We are going to continue to increase funding, as we did last year, and we will co-operate with our European neighbours, the UK and the US.

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

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Deputy. I will say again that a capacity review was launched in January. Over the past five months, analysis has been performed by external people to see in what ways we need to increase our budget, in which areas we need additional skills, where we need more staff, whether we need more resources and in which of the coming five years we will need more resources. We have...

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

Ossian Smyth: The HSE is bringing back services as quickly as it can. It has prioritised its services, starting with its most important ones, its core services, and then it will bring back hospitals. HSE CEO Paul Reid has said it will take a number of weeks but I can say the most important services will come back first. I understand the core systems are all working again and it is matter of ensuring...

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

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Chair. It is important that questions are asked in an open way because this is an issue that affects everybody.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (25 May 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy outlines the measures Ireland is taking under the Single Use Plastics Directive (EU 2019/904) and beyond to substantially reduce the amount of single use plastic items we use and to sustainably manage the waste arising from the remainder. The Directive will be transposed by the deadline of 3rd July 2021 and from that date single use plastic...