The Department of Education has suffered a data breach and has started an investigation into the circumstances surrounding it.
A spreadsheet containing the names, email addresses and titles of 407 individuals was sent to 174 people who had registered interest for an event about the End-to-End Review of Special Educational Needs (SEN).
Also included were comments that had been made by several individuals.
Education Minister Paul Givan has said the department “unreservedly apologises to all those affected”.
“The Department takes its responsibilities around data protection extremely seriously and we unreservedly apologise to all those affected as this should not have happened.
“The individuals involved have been contacted to make them aware of the data breach.
“I have instructed my Departmental Permanent Secretary to launch a full and thorough investigation into the data breach and this will be led by Internal Audit. In parallel, the Department will be working to put in place measures to help make sure this does not happen again.
“An initial notification has been made to the office of the Information Commissioner regarding the data breach and the Department will continue to engage with them as they conduct their investigation.
“As our investigation continues, all those impacted, as well as the Information Commissioner’s Office, will be kept updated.”
– Education Minister Paul Givan MLA
The Information Commissioner’s Office is the public body responsible for “upholding information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.”
