The Health Service Executive (HSE) has secured injunctions from the High Court restraining any sharing, processing, selling, or publishing of data stolen from its computer systems in the recent cyber-attack.

The orders were sought against “persons unknown” who accessed the HSE’s IT system and placing a ransomware note on it last week.

In an affidavit, HSE chief executive Paul Reid told the court he feared that all of the HSE’s data “is potentially compromised”.

'Heinous'

Mr Justice Kevin Cross granted the orders, saying the hacking was undertaken for a “particularly heinous form of blackmail”.

The HSE said the main aim of the orders was to place a legal prohibition on any potential sharing or publication of stolen information by legitimate information providers such as Google or Twitter.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly (pictured) welcomed the granting of the order.

In a statement, he also confirmed that a decryption key to unlock the data had been made available, but added that no ransom had been paid by the State.