Vol. 532 No. 4
474 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his Department's computer system or website has been hacked or if an attempt to hack it has occurred in the past three years; if so, when such an incident took place; the measures which have been put in place to protect against hacking; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8191/01]
No hacking or attempted hacking into any of the Department's computer system has been detected in the past three years.
The Deputy will be aware of the Department's business information protection policy, details of which were supplied to him in the answer to a previous question on 21 February 2001.
The Department's website is hosted externally by an Internet service provider – ISP – company. All Internet e-mail from the website to the Department is routed through anti-virus and firewall measures which are in place to protect the Department's own computer systems from external e-mail threats.
The ISP has firewall protection in place to protect its own computer systems and has not informed the Department of any hacking or attempted hacking of its website over the past three years. Furthermore, it has a comprehensive back-up policy in place which, in the event of a successful hacking attempt on the Department's web site, would ensure that the integrity of the content could be restored rapidly.
