Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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242. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department regularly carries out information technology security audits; and if so, the regularity with which they are undertaken. [52108/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Department has a robust regime for protecting its Information Systems and regular auditing is a significant element of this. Security audits are conducted within the Department by a range of internal and external bodies. The total number of such audits conducted between 2012 and 2017 was 33.

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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243. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the security of communications between her Department's central servers and local offices is regularly audited; and if so, the frequency with which such audits are carried out. [52109/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The security of the communications between the central servers and all offices is constantly audited by a range of industry standard software systems specifically acquired for this purpose. This includes scanning for any weaknesses in the network routers and switches and any traffic that crosses the network. The information from these auditing systems is assessed by a network support team on an ongoing basis. My Department’s Internal Audit Unit also carries out independent audits of processes and ICT systems on an ongoing basis.