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Two recent stories have confirmed that security measures in Irish government databases are inadequate.
In the first case an official in the Department of Family and Social Affairs was found by police to have leaked personal and financial information to his brother, a serious criminal, which was then used to target victims for burglary and blackmail. The second case involved another official in the same department who examined files on Irish celebrities and systematically leaked that information to the media.
Both cases appear to reveal a culture in that Department where it is "common practice" among department employees to be "checking people casually". They follow another recent scandal where officials in the same department were found to be selling information to the insurance industry.
Civil servant mole leaked intelligence to criminal (16.10.2007)
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/civil-servant-mole-leaked-inte...
Official gave private details to media in new leak shock (16.10.2007)
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/official-gave-private-details-...
Welfare Records Leaked to Insurers (16.07.2007)
http://www.digitalrights.ie/2007/07/16/welfare-records-leaked-to-insur...
EDRI-gram: Irish insurance industry gets personal data from Police
(18.07.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.14/irish-data-leaking
(Contribution by TJ McIntyre, EDRI-member Digital Rights Ireland)