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■PUBLIC SECTOR: NEWS
Embarrassment over
theft of welfare data
staff on appropriate security meas-
By John Kennedy and Marie Boran
ures in relation to storing and
protecting sensitive information, it is
also essential an IT department can
DATA Protection Commissioner enforce policies that prevent data
Billy Hawkes has described the loss breaches such as this, he added.
of a laptop containing social welfare “Precious few laptops are ever
details of a significant number of successfully located, so it makes
Irish citizens as a “serious incident”. sense for firms to examine alterna-
A laptop from the Comptroller and tive means of safeguarding the data
Auditor General’s (C&AG) office, by deploying solutions capable of
which contained data from the monitoring, managing and, if neces-
Department of Social and Family sary, ‘killing’ laptops – irrespective
Affairs, went missing in July. of their location or status.
It is understood that details of as “Technology now exists that can
many as 390,000 social welfare lock down laptops, even if they’re
recipients were contained on the switched off, meaning there’s really
missing laptop. The data loss has no excuse for losing sensitive details
implications not only for the citizens in this manner,” said Flaguel.
whose data was misplaced, but also “Human error continues to com-
for a number of agencies involved in pound the Government’s data loss
the incident, and the matter has issues,” said Ciaran Farrell, business
escalated to a full investigation by development manager of data quality
the Data Protection Commissioner. experts, Kroll Ontrack.
The laptop was lost or stolen at a bus Farrell said employees must be
stop in Dublin last month. trained to view methods such as
It is unclear whether the data was Data Protection Commissioner, Billy Hawkes encryption as standard business
protected by encryption technology, processes, not practices reserved for
despite high-profile disclosures this will be fully examining all their poli- special occasions. Other avenues for
year that laptops belonging to Bank cies in relation to the collection and data storage, like virtualisation, will
of Ireland Life and the Irish Blood storage of data to ensure that inci- continue to grow and so will the
Transfusion Service had been stolen. dents of this scale and nature can be complexity of the threats designed to
The Data Protection Commissioner avoided in future,” Hawkes stated. breach security measures.
has spoken with the Comptroller Commenting on the case, Loic “Both businesses and public sector
and Auditor General, John Buckley, Flaguel, business development bodies alike must start viewing
in relation to the incident and senior manager at Alcatel-Lucent said that ongoing staff training in data
officials from the Office of the Data in order to “prevent further erosion protection as essential to the wider
Protection Commissioner have held of the public’s confidence”, this was a business continuity strategy.
discussions with the C&AG’s office. good time to ensure the Government “A proactive and considered
The Data Protection Commissioner does something to make sure all approach to data management will
is also liaising closely with the sensitive information stays with the help to prevent data loss, the cost of
Department of Social and Family IT department exclusively, never which is measured not only finan-
Affairs on the matter. leaving with an individual employee. cially, but also in terms of the
The Commissioner said the “Laptops are currently being lost damage that can be caused to an
department is seeking to contact all by organisations with such alarming organisation’s reputation. Unless the
those affected by the laptop’s loss frequency that many now claim they importance of data backup and
and it has also put a dedicated should be banned from holding protection is successfully communi-
helpdesk in place. sensitive data at all – seriously cated to the entire workforce, the
“The Commissioner also expects inhibiting the benefits of working threat of data breach issues will
that all major holders of personal remotely,” said Flaguel. While it is continue to lurk at the door,”
data in the public and private sectors good practice to educate government Farrell warned.
40 Knowledge Ireland September 2008
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