Statement by Aodhan O Riordain on increasing cyber threats
Statement by Aodhan O Riordain on increasing cyber threats - The Labour Party
Labour MEP for Dublin Aodhan O Riordain has expressed his deep concern at the threats sent to media organisations across Ireland and the UK, saying it highlights Government’s failure to take Ireland’s defence and security seriously.
O Riordain said:
“Firstly I want to express my shock at what has happened and my thoughts are with all the staff impacted by this morning’s bomb hoax. Across Ireland and Europe, we have seen an enormous escalation in these threats and interference across democracies.
“The increasing cybersecurity risks demand real attention from this Government but they have failed heretofore. The international landscape is evolving, and Ireland must be able to navigate it effectively.
“While Government has been obsessed with the Triple Lock, they have utterly failed to have a real debate about our defence, particularly around areas like cyber security.
“If we had a Government that was actually serious about defence in the modern age, it would have ensured that a debate on the National Security Strategy, something that is a Programme for Government commitment, had taken place. Yet Government failed to do so.
“We had the HSE cyberattacks a number of years ago, blood banks in France impacted this week, and these threats will continue to emerge and cause massive disruption until we have a Government that is willing to take our defence and security seriously.
“We also must ensure that our emergency services have all the resources and training that they need to deal with these threats as they unfortunately become all too frequent.
“Government can play an immediate role by moving to resolving the public sector pay dispute to ensure that our public servants, our nurses, our teachers have a fair pay deal for the work that they do to keep our country running.”