Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 441: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he proposes to introduce legislation to compel mobile phone companies to introduce security measures to prevent unauthorised access; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22530/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I have no proposals at present to introduce the legislative measures referred to by the Deputy. The unauthorised access of personal information is, in the first instance, a matter for An Garda Síochána and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, which has responsibility for the protection of personal information.

I understand that the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is having discussions with some of the mobile phone operators in relation to this matter with a view to addressing potential problems with the existing voicemail access system.

Consumers can ensure greater security by ensuring that the default access code for voicemail is changed and by deleting messages in their voice mailboxes. I also understand that many new Smart Phone devices have built in privacy managers which allow the user to customise how the phone manages personal information, and that these settings can be changed at any time and not just when an application is first installed. The use of PIN numbers for access to handsets and voicemail and in some instances encryption of messages allow users to protect information stored on their phones, such as SMS messages and emails, as well as enabling them to protect personal information, such as voicemails, stored on the telecommunications network.

I recently introduced secondary legislation which obliges undertakings providing publicly available electronic communications networks or services to safeguard the security of its services and, indeed, it is an offence for such undertakings not to comply with these requirements. Provisions in relation to data breaches have also been strengthened. Responsibility for the enforcement of these measures rests with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.