John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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114. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the measures that his Department has taken to improve its resilience in terms of cyber-attacks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33757/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department implements a programme of continuous review in relation to ICT security in order to keep up to date with current threat levels given that cyber security is a multi-faceted challenge that is constantly evolving. 

In line with best practice, the Department of Defence fully cooperates and collaborates with and takes guidance from Ireland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications.

In 2020, my Department migrated its core IT infrastructure to the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) under the 'Build to Share Managed Desktop' shared service.  An Information Security Management System (ISMS) has been established within the OGCIO that has been certified as meeting the requirements of ISO27001:2013.  The ISMS provides an overall governance framework for information security of which cyber security is a key element.

My Department places a high priority on cyber security and implements a security-by-design and defence-in-depth approach to cyber security.  The defence-in-depth security strategy is achieved through the effective combination of people, processes, and technology to support the implementation of appropriate security measures and provisions. From an operational and security perspective, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on specific details of measures taken in relation to cyber security.