Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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799. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of computers in his Department that still use an operating system (details supplied) in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44703/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department is currently undertaking the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 across 211 locations nationwide. My Department has at total of 5,100 devices of which 2,950 currently use Windows 7 operating system. It is planned that the upgrade of these devices will be completed by Q2 2020.

Table:

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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800. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department will not be forced to pay additional premium payments to a company (details supplied) once support for an operating system expires in January 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44719/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department has always sought to achieve best value for the tax payer by maximising the lifetime of its computer devices, thus reducing total cost of ownership.

It had been planned to have all devices upgraded before the withdrawal of Window 7 support. However, the need to divert resources to support my Department's Brexit plans extended the timeline of the Windows 10 upgrade, which will now be completed in Q2 2020.

Extended Windows 7 support will be necessary for a small number of devices. The cost will depend on progress with the rollout but is not likely to exceed €35,000 for 2020.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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801. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to protect his Department in the event of a malware attack or security risks as a result of the failure to upgrade computers from an operating system (details supplied) in his Department and the agencies under his remit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44735/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department is actively upgrading all of its (Windows) computer devices to Windows 10. This upgrade will be completed by Q2 2020.

Any devices not upgraded by the time Microsoft withdraws standard support for Windows 7, will use multiple layers of technology for protection including: -

- The purchase of on-going Windows 7 support for the small number of devices using this operating system

- The use of firewalls to protect the Department's IT network

- The use of spam filters on all mail servers which are continuously updated several times per day

- The use of anti-spyware and ant-imalware software on all devices on the Department’s network. These products are updated on a daily basis

In addition, my Department’s computer systems are independently certified to meet the ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Standard. My Department invests considerable resources to protect the information that it needs to support the wide range of activities that it carries out and has experienced and trained staff dedicated to the prevention/detection of and the response to any cybersecurity threats. My Department will also continue with its on-going training of staff in relation to the threats posed by malware, phishing attacks etc and on how to avoid these threats.