Written answers
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation
Data Protection
9:00 pm
Johnny Brady (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 282: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation given that significant information and other services are provided via Internet sites to both the public as well as to staff, the processes, standards or recommendations in place to ensure that the design, development and maintenance of all such sites consistently complies with legislative requirements, technical standards and industry best practice in terms of data protection, security, accessibility and usability [41992/10]
Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department and its offices maintain a variety of websites providing advice and guidance to citizens and businesses alike.
Many of the sites, including the Department's main site have been designed to in accordance with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Others have text-only versions to improve accessibility. Similarly many of these websites have privacy or legal statements as required by Data Protection or other legislation.
The security of these websites is very important to avoid the possibility of defacement, hacking or the distribution of malicious software. To this end external IT security experts are engaged to test the security of the sites, particularly those sites supporting on-line transactions, and to make recommendation for improvements as necessary.
In addition the format and content of all the Department's websites is regularly reviewed. Where older websites are being refreshed, or new websites being developed, they are designed to ensure they comply with data protection and accessibility requirements. The ICT Unit of the Department highlights the importance of compliance with all relevant standards and work in this regard will continue.
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