Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let us take Rits first. It is an Irish company. It is an independent information security consultancy that has been delivering services to Irish clients since 1990. It is a company that does not sell any security products. It has been retained over the years by many organisations in the public and private sectors, including the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, to do security work, although it did not carry out the general sweeps to which we have referred. It has acted as information security adviser as well as being retained to deliver highly technical complex services such as digital forensics and penetration testing. It is frequently called upon by the Irish media to comment on current information technology or information technology related security issues. It has done work for Departments. There was absolutely no time to engage in a tendering process in the context of the urgency of dealing with this matter. Since Rits was a body recognised as having expertise in this area, it was asked to do a peer review of all the relevant information and the reports received from Verrimus and to advise on these.