Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 October 2025
170. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation 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. [54389/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department’s policy is that Departmental official data must be stored centrally in appropriate record management systems. My Department has 24/7/365 support in place and users must promptly notify the Department if a device is lost or stolen whereby the device in question is remotely wiped and connectivity removed. As can been seen from the table below the number of official department devices that are either lost or stolen on an annual basis is very low. All my Department’s official devices are protected with the latest advanced encryption technologies, in addition my Department deploys multiple security layers on official devices for protection including for identity verification. These security measures and controls, supported by my Department’s policies in this area, ensures that the data risks involved are effectively managed and as such are considered to be low. The security mitigations, controls, measures and policies have been implemented as part of an overall suite of enterprise security systems for all the Departments data and ICT assets and therefore it is not possible to provide a cost for the specific mitigations indicated.
Devices lost or stolen from 2021 to date:
|
|
Laptops Lost |
Laptops Stolen |
Phones Lost |
Phones Stolen |
USB Lost |
USB Stolen |
|
2025 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
2024 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
2023 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
2022 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
2021 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Totals |
2 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
