Cyber attack!

The HSE payroll and HR system was placed under increased strain on 13th May 2021, when Russian criminal gang Wizard Spider carried out a devastating cyberattack.

The cyberattack meant that all systems had to be taken offline while security teams secured the systems. But the pressure was on, because 22,000 people (most of them key workers) were due to be paid on 20th May, just 7 days after the attack.

Successful resolution

This close collaboration between HSE and Zellis meant that everyone on payroll under the Zellis managed system was paid accurately and on time on 20th May.

Existing partnership

Having previously worked with the Zellis Unipay 5.4 consolidated platform, HSE had recently switched over to the Zellis HCM cloud, which is our most powerful solution yet.

And thankfully, HSE had recently taken out a managed solution with Zellis, so not only were Zellis able to provide collaborative support, but also because much of the payroll functionality was now cloud based, all teams were able to continue to access the critical pay data entry needed to meet the payroll deadline.

Collaborative crisis management

The first step was the delivery of a “clean” laptop, which enabled the team to set up an SFTP-based network to exchange large payroll files between designated email accounts so that the required data could be uploaded into Zellis’ secure systems.

A URL redirect was set up to the Zellis site to enable employees to seamlessly access the employee self-service application, MyView, which is usually provided by the HSE network.

Ongoing support

As more clean laptops were obtained, Zellis provided each payroll manager with individual SSL virtual private network tokens and supported in configuring Wi-Fi connections so that they could access the Zellis system.

Over time, the HSE team were able to work on the ResourceLink system again, and Zellis continued to support until most of the HSE networks were reinstated on 23rd July 2021.

“We were thankful that we had a managed service. It meant Zellis could get everything up and running as soon as we got our first ‘clean laptop.’ They were nothing but helpful. This resulted in HSE staff being paid correctly and on time despite significant and unprecedented disruption to our IT systems.”

Brid Harte, HSE national payroll manager