Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 20 Mar 2001

Vol. 532 No. 4

Written Answers. - Computer Hacking.

Denis Naughten

Ceist:

259 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development 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. [8187/01]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (Mr. Walsh):

The Centre for Management and Organisation Development, CMOD, in the Department of Finance hosts my Department's website. No website located on the CMOD infrastructure has been hacked to date. However, attempts have been made to infiltrate the server which supports multiple Civil Service websites. Following unsuccessful hacking attempts in April 2000, a web server security audit was carried out by CMOD and all security issues were resolved.

My Department has both hardware and software in place to protect the Department's computer systems. In addition to these facilities, the Department is further protected by Civil Service wide security facilities operated by the Department of Finance. The Department has no record of attempted hacking of its computer systems within the last three years.