Written answers

Tuesday, 18 May 2021

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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448. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the number of data breaches suffered by his Department in each of the past five years and to date in 2021. [26094/21]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department takes its data protection responsibilities very seriously and makes every effort to ensure that personal data is safeguarded at all times.  Technical and organisational measures, as required under GDPR, are implemented to ensure the security of personal data being processed.  Data security and data privacy are central topics of all data protection awareness campaigns rolled out to staff on a regular basis.  Also, my Department has a data breach protocol in place for the management of data breach incidents.

The number of data breaches in my Department in each of the past five years and to date in 2021 are outlined in the table below:

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 01/01/21 - 12/05/21
Nil Nil 5 9 11 6

The majority of data breach incidents that have occurred, relate to mis-addressed correspondence by email and post.  In most instances, data breaches have involved low risk or no risk to the data subject.  In cases where there was a low risk to the rights and freedoms of a data subject, the Data Protection Commission was notified.  One case, deemed to be a high risk to the rights and freedoms of an individual data subject, was notified to the data subject and the Data Protection Commission, in line with GDPR requirements.

My Department also implements a programme of continuous review in relation to ICT security in order to keep up-to-date with evolving threat levels and to respond appropriately.  For security and operational reasons, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on specific details in relation to cybersecurity.

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