Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 141: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she is satisfied that all customers whose personal and payment information that was on the reported stolen laptop computers have been identified, contacted and informed of this incident; the number of calls that were received by her Department's free phone number on this matter; the number of emails received; the number of letters received; the security measures taken by her to ensure data protection of her Department's customers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32728/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The laptop belonging to the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) was reported missing in April 2007. On 1st of August, 2008 some 16 months after the laptop went missing, the Office of theC&AG informed the Department that the missing laptop contained a number of files used in connection with the audit of the Social Insurance Fund for 2004 and 2005. These files contained some 374,000 individual personal customer records.

On being notified of the contents of the laptop on 1 August, 2008, the Department immediately put a range of measures in place to identify the customers involved and to confirm if they were currently in receipt of a payment. This involved doing data matching exercises to identify and exclude deceased customers and to confirm the current address and payment arrangements for the remaining 340,318 customers. The necessary software development and production arrangements were put in place to issue a personalised letter to each of these customers.

One of the Department's primary concerns was to minimise the anxiety that publication of the fact that one of the missing C&AG laptops contained personal social welfare customer data, was likely to cause to its customers, particularly pensioners. The Department put in place a dedicated free-phone help-line, email service and post office box number to provide further clarification and advice to customers. To date, some 16,500 calls have been made to the special helpline number, 161 e/mails have been received and responded to, and some 750 letters have been received and are being dealt with. Of the letters issued, some 2,300 letters have been returned to the Department and are being processed as a matter of priority.

The Department has been engaged in a programme of continuous development and deployment of measures to enhance data security. Since this incident came to light, the Department has further reviewed and enhanced its protocols in relation to the transfer of data to third parties, including the Office of the C&AG. All bulk data is now transferred in an encrypted format, in accordance with the Department's 'External Party Electronic Data Transfer Policy'.