Thousands of people across Ireland will be notified by the HSE over the coming months if they were affected by the national data breach which occurred last year.
According to figures, there are around 113,000 people who will have to be contacted by the HSE over the cyber-attack that happened in May of 2021.
At the time of the hack, more than 80% of the HSE's IT infrastructure and health service sites nationwide were affected.
Each person whose details were illegally accessed will receive a letter in the post by April 2023 which will inform them of how they can see exactly what information was taken and copied by criminals.
It is understood that 86% of the people being contacted are patients while 14% relates to staff data.
The HSE says 94,000 patients were affected alongside approximately 18,200 members of staff will be contacted.
Joe Ryan, HSE National Director told RTE News: "People being notified will receive a letter telling them what part of their personal information was impacted.
"The letter will also outline how, if they wish to do so, people can then request to view their exact documents which were illegally accessed and copied, which can be done via a portal on the HSE website,'' explained Mr Ryan.
More than one year on, the HSE says it has not found any evidence of people's personal data being shared or used fraudulently online or otherwise.
Mr. Ryan went on to say: "We expect this process will take a number of months to complete, as we take the time to contact each person; ensure we have a secure communication with them; and go through the process of assisting them if they want to make a request to view their documents.”
It was also confirmed that Tusla and Children's Health Ireland - which shares some systems with the HSE - were also impacted by the attack.
Both are working through a substantial number of records relating to people whose personal information was affected and will also begin the notification process to ensure people affected are in the know.
In a statement the HSE said: ''We will continue to liaise with the Data Protection Commission and to work closely with our technical experts, An Garda Síochána and the National Cyber Security Centre.”
The HSE said it regrets that the data breach happened and has issued an apology to everyone who has been affected.
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