Government Loses Laptop With Citizens' Personal Data

The Department of Social and Family Affairs is to write to all of the customers whose personal details were contained on a laptop.

The vast majority of customers affected were in receipt of various social welfare schemes during a period of time in 2005.

The Department is also setting up a dedicated helpline for members of the public to ring if they are one of the people affected or if they have any concerns.

Advertisements will also appear in national and regional newspapers this week to outline which particular schemes are affected.

The C & AG was conducting an audit of payments records relating to 2005 and the information provided, other than names and addresses, was provided in an encoded format.

However, the C & AG has confirmed that this information was converted into a readable record on their laptop and that details of up to a maximum of 380,000 records were on the laptop at the time it went missing.

Given the fact that 16 months has passed since the theft of the laptop, officials in the Department of Social and Family Affairs believe there is no evidence that customer information has been mis-used or compromised in any way.

The Department has been in contact with the Bank of Ireland, its bank, and it has seen nothing to indicate any connection between fraud activity and missing DSFA records.

The Department was only informed of the details of the information on the stolen laptop just over a week ago and has been working with both the C & AG and Data Protection Commissioner in relation to the breach of information.

An Garda Siochana and payment agencies have been contacted.

Since being informed of the loss of data the Department has been working to identify details of the 380,000 customers and the information that had been included on their records.

The Department has ascertained that about a quarter of these customers had payments made through their bank accounts.

Speaking about the breach of security, Ms Hanafin expressed her great concern at the loss of the information but said that everything was being done to ensure that customers affected would be contacted. "I am extremely concerned that this theft of information could cause anxiety to our customers, particularly our pensioners. I am also very concerned that this volume of information was put on a laptop.

"The information that was provided to an Auditor of the C & AG office in 2007 was provided by us in standard coded format and, with the exception of names and addresses, was not something that would be easily interpreted by the outside public.

"I am also very concerned that we were not made aware by the C & AG of the nature and extent of the loss at the time the theft was reported to the Gardaí in 2007. I view the loss of information and time very seriously," she concluded.