THE DATA Protection Commissioner has sought a meeting with Health Service Executive (HSE) management after a laptop, mobile phone and data disk with personal information about 1,150 health workers was stolen from a staff member's home.
The HSE confirmed yesterday that the computer, BlackBerry and disk were stolen last Wednesday, September 3rd. It said the laptop was "password protected, but was not encrypted".
The HSE said the laptop and data disk "contained personal information gathered for the purposes of a survey on the provision of the influenza vaccine to 1,150 healthcare workers in the autumn.
"The HSE is satisfied that the majority of this information is non-patient/client specific and where any clinically sensitive information is confirmed, we will be acting immediately."
The HSE said it planned to have all technological devices encrypted by the end of September.
The incident coincided with the hosting of a seminar in Dublin to mark Global Security Week.
At the Cyber Crime: Don't Be a Victimseminar, Owen O'Connor of the Information Systems Security Association said encryption was the key to protecting confidential information.
Mr O'Connor said a number of misconceptions existed regarding stolen company laptops. "For the most part, targeted asset theft is not occurring in Ireland, with criminals usually unaware of the information contained on the laptops."
This was echoed by Det Sgt John Finan of the computer crime unit within the Garda fraud investigation bureau.
He said thieves were unlikely to use confidential company information stored on stolen laptops, fearing it would open themselves up to being caught. "Rather than using stolen company laptops for extortion or blackmail . . . criminals tend to re-format them so there is no trace of the previous owner, and then sell them on cheaply," Det Sgt Finan said.