77 DAFM mobile phones lost or stolen since 2020
77 mobile phones belonging to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) were lost or stolen since 2020.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon confirmed the figure in response to a parliamentary question by Fianna Fáil TD Naoise Ó Cearúil.
Deputy Ó Cearúil asked the minister to confirm if any staff devices, including laptops, phones and USBs, containing departmental information or sensitive data were reported lost or stolen in the past five years.
| Device | Lost/Stolen | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laptop | Lost | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Stolen | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mobile | Lost | 15 | 11 | 17 | 19 | 3 |
| Stolen | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Minister Heydon confirmed that 65 mobile phones had been lost in the past five years, while 12 devices were reported as stolen.
In addition, four DAFM laptops were either lost or stolen since 2020.
In 2023, 19 of the department's mobile phones were lost, along with a further two phones being stolen. Last year, five mobiles were reported as lost (3) or stolen (2).
DAFM
Minister Heydon said that it is his department’s policy that official data must be stored centrally in appropriate file management systems and that data should not be stored locally on end user devices such as laptops or mobile phones.
"The department secures all laptops with advanced encryption and employs multilayered security protocols on official devices to safeguard data.
"All mobile devices are managed using a leading mobile device management product. In the event that a mobile device is reported lost or stolen, a device-wipe signal is sent to the device.
"Strict policies govern the use of USBs, including mandatory encryption," he said.
"These security measures and controls, supported by my department’s policies in this area, ensures that the data risks involved are effectively managed and as such are considered to be low.
"The security mitigations, controls, measures, and policies have been implemented as part of an overall suite of enterprise security systems for all the department’s data and ICT assets and therefore it is not possible to provide a cost for the specific mitigations indicated," the minister added.
