Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1131. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of instances in which data transmissions across her Department’s network were compromised due to a gap or lapse in security certificates; the number of times security protocols were at risk due to same in the past three years to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45799/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department is a major user of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and invests on an ongoing basis in securing the ICT technical infrastructure and the services and data used in support of our business. This includes traditional, defence-in-depth deployments of preventative controls like firewalls and endpoint protection and advanced threat detection tools. My Department also employs security technology that, together with a dedicated ICT security team and well-defined processes, continually monitors the Department’s network and services.

Encryption of data transmissions across my Department’s network is achieved with the use of Digital Certificates. Digital Certificate life-cycle is very carefully and proactively managed by a dedicated team within my Department to ensure that there is no risk to security protocols or compromise of data transmitted. Data transmitted across my Department’s network uses a variety of transmission and security protocols including HTTPS.

I am advised that there has been no risk to security protocols or compromise of data transmissions across my Department’s network due to a gap or lapse in the use Digital Certificates in the last 3 years.