Ireland’s national health service has shut down its IT systems on Friday morning after it was hit by a ransomware attack. The Health Service Executive (HSE) said the move was precautionary. “There is a significant ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems. We have taken the precaution of shutting down all our our [sic] IT systems in order to protect them from this attack and to allow us fully assess the situation with our own security partners,” HSE wrote, at the start of a string of tweets. “We apologise for inconvenience caused to patients and to the public and will give further information as it becomes available,” it added. HSE said vaccinations and the national ambulance service are not affected. The tweets came after a maternity hospital announced the cancellation of most visits. “Due to a serious IT issue all outpatient visits are cancelled today—unless you are at 36 weeks …