Vol. 406 No. 5
36 Mr. T. O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Defence if he will outline the system whereby the computerised records of the Defence Forces are protected with specific reference to the security arrangements for sensitive data, and the protection, availability, integrity and confidentiality of information being transmitted across the computer network.
Computerised records held in my Department relate to the pay and personnel details of members of the Defence Forces. Such records are secured in accordance with guidelines issued by the Department of Finance's central information technology services and in accordance with the terms of the Data Protection Act, 1988.
A contract was recently placed for a major computer network, implementation of which has commenced. Security of information is a fundamental prerequisite for this network and all data being transmitted on the wide area network will be encrypted to ensure its confidentiality and integrity.
