Departmental Data

Wednesday, 13 May 2020

Ceisteanna (4)

Catherine Murphy

Ceist:

4. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the top ten websites visited by officials and political staff annually in each of the years 2017 to 2019 and to date in 2020 via hardware provided to them by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4020/20]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Minister of State at the Department of Defence

It was not possible to collate the information requested by the Deputy in the timeframe available as it would have required a detailed analysis of my Department’s web filtering software logs by ICT staff. These staff are currently focusing on preparing ICT systems and equipment to facilitate additional Departmental staff to work remotely as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The analysis of logs will be carried when circumstances permit and I will provide a response to the Deputy directly.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51

I refer to my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 4 of the 13 May 2020. The Deputy will recall that I advised that the information sought could not be compiled within the timeframe and that I would revert to her as soon as the information was to hand. Further information has now been made available and is outlined in the following table. Due to a change in the web security infrastructure in use in my Department, data relating to desktop website access by staff working in Department of Defence is only available for the period 20th October 2019 to 13th May 2020.

The configuration of the web security infrastructure ensures that:

- Unsafe and inappropriate sites are blocked from access on the Department network.

- Sites that are deemed necessary to conduct the business of my Department are accessible.

Website access is only reported by website groups that represent access to one or more websites. The systems in place do not allow for the provision of a more granular breakdown.

Please note that sites which operate in the background unbeknownst to the users which are deemed system sites e.g. advertising sites, tracking sites, content delivery networks etc. have been excluded.

The top ten website groups visited in the period 20th October to 13th May 2020 are listed below and include an example of sites that occur within each group.

Top 10 Website Groups	Example of Site(s) within this Group
Whitelisted Sites	defence.cloud.gov.ie www.ros.ie crm.peoplepoint.gov.ie www.businessonline-boi.com
Gov_Sites	pssc.gov.ie
militaryarchives.ie	www.militaryarchives.ie
Google.ie	www.google.ie
Bing	www.bing.com
Google Search	www.google.com
military.ie	www.military.ie
Amazon	www.amazon.com www.amazon.co.uk
Independent,co,uk	www.independent.co.uk
Irishtimes.com	www.irishtimes.com

I trust this information is of assistance to the Deputy.