A laptop containing personal information about staff at a Government department has been lost by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office, it was revealed today.
It is understood the computer went missing from a C&AG worker at a bus stop during the course of an audit at the as-yet undisclosed Government office.
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner confirmed the loss was reported at the start of last month and that an investigation had been launched.
It was not immediately known how much detail was on the laptop, but the Data Protection Commissioners officer branded the loss worrying.
A spokesman said: “It’s been reported to us and we are in the middle of an investigation and what I can say is that the C&AG’s office is co-operating with us on it but we don’t really comment on investigations when they are ongoing.”
The Data Protection Commissioner signalled its worry about the loss.
“It’s enough to make us concerned,” the spokesman added.
It is not yet known how long the investigation, which involves a number of senior officers including the commissioner, will take.
The C&AG’s office is responsible for auditing and reporting on the accounts of public bodies and examines how they administer their funding.
It is the second security blunder by a government office to emerge this week.
It was revealed yesterday that crates of documents filled with personal details were discovered next to a lift during an audit at the Department of Social and Family Affairs.
In a statement, the C&AG's office said 16 laptops had been stolen from January 1999 to date, with just one of those recovered.
Maureen Mulligan, deputy director of audit corporate services, said there was no evidence in any case to suggest the office was specifically targeted.
“The office acknowledges the need to manage any risk to the disclosure of client data and it very much regrets the loss of the equipment and any consequential risk that data, while held on password-protected equipment, could be improperly disclosed,” she said.
“There is no evidence that the office’s systems were specifically targeted and, in all cases, the thefts appeared to have been opportunistic in nature.”
PA