John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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164. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the total spend by his Department and the agencies under his remit on cybersecurity measures since 2019 to date in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51170/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department adopts a defence in depth approach to cyber security. This approach uses multiple layers and disparate systems to deliver security which is not dependent on any single component. Given the heightened level of cyber risk which has pertained in recent times, my Department’s technical staff has adopted a posture of increased vigilance and oversight of systems.

My Department takes advice from its own external security advisers, and monitors advice and guidance coming from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on any additional steps which should be implemented in the light of current risks.

For operational and security reasons, we are advised by the NCSC not to disclose details of systems and processes which could in any way compromise those efforts. In particular, it is not considered appropriate to disclose information which might assist criminals to identify potential vulnerabilities in departmental cybersecurity arrangements, or to allow those criminals to enumerate differences in approach between public bodies which could be used to identify targets.

Therefore, it is not considered appropriate to disclose particular arrangements in place in relation to cyber security tools and services, or financial details which could be used to rank the cyber defences of public bodies, and my Department does not comment on operational security matters.

The cybersecurity measures deployed and related spend by agencies under the remit of my Department is a day-to-day operational matter for those agencies and not one in which I have a direct function.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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165. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the proportion of his Department’s IT data that is stored in the cloud; the proportion of the data held by all agencies and subsidiaries of his Department in the cloud; if this represents an improvement; if so, the development that has been made towards cloud storage since 2019 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51194/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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With the wide range and disparate nature of the systems and services supported by my Department, and the data required to support these, it is not possible to provide a figure for the proportion of the Department's IT data held in the cloud.

Previously my Department availed of relatively small-scale cloud storage options primarily to facilitate file transfer operations. In recent years my Department has utilised several government cloud "Build to Share" services and applications provided by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. These include applications common across many Departments such as ePQ, eRisk and eSubmissions. In March 2021 my Department commenced a phased migration of its document management system to the OGCIO developed eDocs record management system, which is hosted on the government cloud. This migration is expected to be completed by November 2022.

My Department also avails of OGCIO provided government cloud hosting for online application systems and services, including all of the Companies Registration Office's systems. My Department also uses the National Shared Services Office shared services for payroll and HR services.

Where new business systems are being developed within my Department, cloud-based options are considered first, in line with the public service "cloud first" policy. This year a contract was awarded for the development of a new cloud-based case management system for the Labour Court to replace the existing on-premises system. Plans for further business system developments are at an advanced stage, and it is intended that these will also be based on commercial cloud platforms.

The use of cloud storage by agencies under the remit of my Department is a day-to-day operational matter for those agencies and not one in which I have a direct function.