As an open liberal democracy, Ireland is vulnerable to campaigns of this type in much the same way as other EU Member States. In December 2017, the Government established the first ‘Interdepartmental Group on Security of Ireland’s Electoral Process and Disinformation’, which is coordinated by the Department of the Taoiseach. The group is tasked with assessing the risks to Ireland’s electoral process, taking into account the substantive issues arising from recent experiences in other democratic countries with regard to the use of social media by external, anonymous third parties. The Group published its first report in July 2018 which overall found that while the risks to the electoral process in Ireland are relatively low at present there is potential for future risks due to the spread of disinformation online and the risk of cyber-attacks on the electoral system. The group has proposed a number of measures to protect against these risks, including establishing an Electoral Commission, modernising voter registration, regulating online political advertising and supporting EU efforts to tackle disinformation. At a European level also, there has been significant work, including the creation of the Hybrid Fusion Cell, set up in the European External Action Service to facilitate the rapid sharing of information relating to the potential hybrid type actions affecting multiple EU Member States. 4.3 Risks to Critical National Infrastructure and Public Sector Systems and Data While general risks arise for society as a consequence of developments in cyber space, there are particular sectors in which these incidents have potentially far greater implications. In broad terms, these include those infrastructure sectors that are critical for societal and economic functions, often termed Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), and Public Sector Systems and Data. The traditional conceptualisation of CNI has encompassed the energy and transport sectors, the financial services sector, healthcare and the telecommunications system itself. Government IT systems, in turn, are central to the delivery of many functions that are essential to allow a modern society to function, including social services and payment systems, tax collection and the functioning of democracy. Recent decades have seen the development and use of tools to compromise, disrupt and even destroy these systems. These threats have emanated from a wide range of actors, varying in terms of access to resources and capability. These range from individuals acting alone or in small groups engaged in nuisance type attacks, such as website defacement and small scale denial of service attacks, through to ‘hacktivists’, criminals of various scales, and Nation States. Among the higher level threats, organised criminal gangs are often 15