Waterways Ireland says navigations in Laois remain open despite 'Cyber Incident'

Waterways Ireland has apologised to customers who couldn't contact it following a “cyber incident” last week. 

The authority says the incident is affecting some servers, emails and phone lines but cause little disruption within its operational teams. It said all navigations remain open.   

Waterways Ireland statement on the “Cyber Incident” states that: “On Monday, August 15th, Waterways Ireland determined that it was the subject of a cyber incident affecting some of the servers supporting its IT systems. Waterways Ireland took immediate action, suspended all affected systems, notified relevant authorities, and activated its Business Continuity Plan. Our IT professionals and third-party managed service providers are working to resolve the situation.”

They said: “Resolution of the incident is taking time, but we are making progress. The Body is necessarily proceeding with caution to mitigate risk and ensure our network and systems are safe.”

“Importantly, there has been little or no disruption within our operational teams who account for two thirds of our work force. Consequently, all our navigations remain open and are available to our multiplicity of users. Our operational teams are deployed on ongoing maintenance programmes; capital projects; and large-scale transformative projects across our entire portfolio of assets in Ireland and Northern Ireland,” Waterways Ireland stated. 

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They acknowledged that. “Customers have been unable to contact us by email and we apologise for this disruption. We are working to bring our emails back online and expect they will be restored gradually over the course of this week.”

“Similarly, customers are having difficulty contacting us by phone at some of our locations. We expect to have the phone system restored over the course of this week. In the meantime, we can be contacted on +44 (0) 2866323004 for urgent calls,” they stated. 

Waterways Ireland thanked the public for their patience and understanding.