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Only 3 out of 15 Government Departments have fully encrypted their IT systems

Issued : Wednesday 1 October, 2008

Ruairi Quinn TD, Labour Party Spokesperson for Education and Science has expressed his surprise at the latest figures revealing the high number of deficiencies in government department's secure IT policy.

"I find it incredible to discover that 19 laptops, 3 desktops, at least 9 Blackberry mobile phones and 4 portable storage devices have been lost across the Departments in 2008. On average, a device that could contain sensitive information about people is lost nearly every week.

"These figures are based on a series of Dáil questions I tabled last week, as a follow up to a similar question in January 2008. On that occasion I found that almost 100 laptops had been lost over the previous five years. These latest figures show that government departments must get their act together to protect confidential data.

"If these figures are continued for the rest of the year, government departments will have lost more than 45 devices by the end of 2008. That's a doubling of the annual average from the previous five years.

"My concern is heightened, given the response of the departments to my questions concerning the encryption of data on all portable computer devices. Only 3 departments have fully encrypted their devices; nine are in the process of doing so but, shockingly, two have not done so at all (Communications; Education and Science)

"It beggars belief that the Department of Communications, tasked with developing our country's IT infrastructure, has absolutely no policy on securing IT devices.

I have asked Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe, to fully roll out his Department's forthcoming pilot scheme to protect portable computer devices. There is no need for a pilot scheme to prove the dangers of data lost on computers. The consequences of inaction are self-evident. It is high time his Department rolled out this scheme across all sections of his Department without delay".