Information on missing boy lost in cyber attack

Kyran was reported missing at the end of August but last week gardaí said that he is now "presumed dead" and they launched a murder investigation

Information held by Ireland's child and family agency, Tusla, on missing Kyran Durnin was lost in a cyber attack.

The data loss was first reported by the Irish Independent, with the paper quoting sources as saying that the data loss was a "matter of concern" for gardaí (Irish police) working on the boy's case.

Tusla said the system affected by the attack "was not the system of record for case notes" and was not relevant to an internal review by the agency into its interactions with Kyran's family.

A Garda spokesperson said the force "does not comment on remarks by third parties," adding that "any enquiry on Tusla records is a matter for Tusla".

Kyran was reported missing at the end of August, but two weeks ago gardaí said that he was now presumed to be dead and they launched a murder investigation.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ previously reported that detectives believed the child may have been killed more than two years ago, when he was six.

The minister for children said there was a need to "understand what went wrong" in Kyran's case.

"We can absolutely understand all the engagements that this child and his family had with Tusla and indeed with other elements of the state and what went wrong in this situation," Roderic O'Gorman of the Green Party told RTÉ's This Week programme.

"That’s why we’ve asked for this review to understand exactly what did or indeed what didn’t happen in this case."

O'Gorman said the agency's report should be completed in the coming week.

Ireland's minister for children said a review into Tusla's handling of the case was needed to "understand what went wrong"

A cyber attack on Irish health service computer systems in May 2021 caused widespread disruption.

The attack saw a criminal group using a form of malware to gain entry to the HSE's system, encrypting data and then demanding a payment in return for decrypting it.

Tusla said some information was stored on a system that was "not restored following the cyber attack, as it was based on old technology".

"However, this was not the system of record for case notes and isn't relevant to the internal review underway," a spokesperson said.