Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 October 2025
175. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to confirm if any staff devices (laptops, phones, USBs) containing departmental information or sensitive data were reported lost or stolen in the past five years; the number of devices reported; the data risk involved; and the associated cost of mitigation. [54387/25]
View answerMy Department's records indicate that, in the period in question the following number of laptops or mobile phones have been reported as lost or stolen:All laptops and iPhones are encrypted. The loss of an encrypted device is not regarded as a data loss incident.
|
Year |
Device |
Theft / Loss |
|
2021 |
Laptop x2 |
Lost |
|
2022 |
Laptop x1 iPhone x2 |
Lost Lost |
|
2023 |
Laptop x2 iPhone x4 |
1 lost, 1 stolen 2 lost, 1 stolen, 1 lost and recovered. |
|
2024 |
Laptop x1 iPhone x1 |
Stolen Lost |
|
2025 to date |
Laptop x2 iPhone x1 |
1 lost, 1 stolen Lost |
No records of lost or stolen USB storage devices exist. Controls have been in place since several years before the period in question blocking the use of unencrypted USB devices on Departmental PCs. The use of USB storage is now deprecated and blocked entirely except for a small number of specific users.
It is the policy of my Department that the theft of any ICT equipment of value must be reported to the relevant local police authorities. However, none of the stolen items have been recovered.
Devices are replaced, where necessary, from a pool of available devices and not necessarily on a like-for-like basis. No records are available on the cost of replacing a specific device.
