Nearly 460 DAFM data breaches since 2016

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has reported almost 460 data breaches since 2016.

The figure was released in response to a parliamentary question from Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue said that 458 data breaches were recorded by his department over the past 9 years.

The minister noted that no records of data breaches were maintained prior to 2016.

The data shows that there were 89 data breaches in 2023, which is a 44% increase on the previous year when 62 breaches occured.

There have been 69 data breaches recorded by DAFM to date this year.

Minister McConalogue said that the current operational procedure is that the majority of low-risk data breaches are not reported to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) in line with DPC guidance on this issue.

“For operational and security reasons it is not considered appropriate to disclose specific details on the nature of data breaches experienced by my department

“My department has multiple policies and practices in place to ensure compliance with GDPR and all data protection legislation.

“Ongoing training and awareness programmes take place to ensure the department maintains a high standard of compliance,” he said.

Following similar parliamentary questions by Deputy Tóibín to other ministers, it was revealed that almost 7,000 data breaches have been recorded across government departments since 2016.

The Department of Social Protection accounted for 3,637 data breaches (53%) in that period, including 681 in 2023 and 538 to date this year.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said that the vast majority of the confirmed data breaches in her department related to incidents where individual customer information was “accidentally and inadvertently” disclosed to third parties through email or post.

“In each of these incidents, the department followed procedures in accordance with data protection legislation and every effort was made to secure personal data quickly and efficiently.

“Through data protection awareness training and ongoing information of staff obligations the level of reported incident has increased year on year,” she said.

The minister added that her department “takes data protection obligations very seriously”.

“In order to protect the personal data of its customers and to minimise data protection incidents, a dedicated programme board is in place to oversee data protection matters in the department.

“In addition, my department has in place a set of data protection policies, standards, procedures and guidelines governing the use of its computer systems and customer data.

“These policies, procedures and guidelines are kept under constant review and are updated as appropriate,” Minister Humphreys said.