Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 156: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the equipment and data that was lost or stolen from her Department in the past 12 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46664/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's records indicate that in the past 12 months one laptop has been reported stolen, one laptop reported missing and one BlackBerry device reported stolen. None has been recovered or found. There have been no other computers or data devices reported lost, missing or stolen during this period.

It is my Department's policy to invoke the facility to remotely erase all data from a BlackBerry device as soon as it is reported missing, and immediately cancel the subscription with the service provider. In the case of the stolen BlackBerry it was not possible to do this locally and the device was disabled by the service provider at my Department's request.

It is also the policy in my Department to encrypt all new laptops before they are issued. A project to encrypt all laptops already issued to officers of my Department is currently underway and should be completed by year-end. The two missing laptops were not encrypted but they were reported not to contain any sensitive or private data at the time of their loss.