Under 5% queried loss of personal data

FEWER THAN 5 per cent of people whose personal data was contained on a laptop stolen from the Department of Social and Family Affairs queried the department when informed of the theft.

Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin told the Dáil that there was "no indication that the information has been used in any way".

Details of some 370,000 people were contained on the computer used by the Comptroller Auditor General.

Ms Hanafin said she believed that people's fears had been allayed. The department received and responded to 16,500 calls and 161 e-mails and was responding to the 750 letters received.

The department only learned of the stolen laptop 16 months after it was stolen when the Comptroller Auditor General's office contacted public bodies in relation to three laptops stolen from it.

Fine Gael spokeswoman Olwyn Enright, who raised the issue, asked if the department had been informed of the theft when it occurred and if all computers had since been encrypted.

She added that "there was to be a restriction on the use of memory sticks. Has that measure been implemented? Will the Minister ensure that this type of information is not easily removed from the places where it needs to be accessed and that when it is removed it is all encrypted?"

Ms Hanafin said that all new computers were encrypted and "existing laptops are being recalled for encryption".

There were "not many laptops and therefore it is a priority. We are also engaged in a policy to restrict the usage of memory sticks". She added that no client data was retained on laptops and "it was a highly unusual situation".

The Comptroller Auditor General's office was questioned as to why encrypted data was downloaded to a laptop and made readable. "Given changing technologies, we must keep this policy firmly under review," it said.