HSE computers have been hit by another cyberattack that has been described as "criminal in nature and international in scale."
The HSE was crippled two years ago by a massive attack that shut down its systems and subsequently cost over €50 million to repair.
It is understood that the infamous Clop hackers are behind the latest attack.
The prolific Russian cyber-crime gang is known for extorting industrial organisations with ransomware attacks.
READ MORE - HSE hit by second 'international scale criminal' cyber attack as they monitor dark web for stolen data
They have been behind similar hacks on computer systems of Aer Lingus and the BBC in recent days.
Those organisations have been issued with an ultimatum of June 14, after which Clop have threatened to publish sensitive payroll information.
The HSE has this afternoon revealed that payroll has also been targeted in the attack on its IT systems.
A spokesman for the health authority said: "The HSE became aware yesterday evening (Thursday, 8 June) that an external partner (EY) working with us on a project to automate part of our recruitment process was alerted to a cyber-attack on the technology product MoveIT which they were using to support this work.
"This attack was criminal in nature and international in scale.
"HSE teams together with EY have worked closely over the last number of hours to determine the impact on HSE data.
"This analysis has determined that it is likely that information relating to no more than 20 individuals involved in recruitment processes was accessed.
"The data on these recruitment panels is comprised of names, addresses, mobile number, place on the panel and more general information on the posts being recruited. Importantly no other personal identification data or financial data is included.
"The HSE is in contact with relevant authorities and is informing the Data Protection Commission.
"Contact will be made shortly with those individuals whose data was accessed."
HSE chief, Bernard Gloster, said: "I have reviewed this incident with senior officials this morning.
"Any breach is regrettable but unfortunately a feature of international criminal activity in recent years.
"A number of significant facts are important here including no patient data was involved, the attack was not in the HSE ICT environment, there is no evidence as of yet of this data appearing on the dark web which is being monitored by EY and the exposure for the HSE appears to be quite small.
"We are actively keeping the matter under review."
The Irish Mirror has asked the HSE if a ransom or ultimatum has been issued to them.
We have also contacted the Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, for comment.
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