Stephen Donnelly gave devices to cyber security body after ‘hack’By Cillian Sherlock, PAMinister for Health Stephen Donnelly and another department official were advised not to use their devices during a St Patrick’s Day trip to the US in March 2022, in an incident described by department secretary general Robert Watt as a “hack”. The official’s devices were powered off and surrendered to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) upon their arrival back in Ireland. Mr Watt claimed “the machine” was corrupted for four to five days. The report said the proposed funding bypassed all accepted protocols for research funding and did not, in the author’s opinion, meet accepted norms of scrutiny, transparency and accountability. Reflecting on the incident at committee, Mr Watt said: “Whatever, we didn’t communicate with him.

Source: Irish Independent April 19, 2023 22:38 UTC