Theft of laptop with blood donors' details 'sloppy'
The theft of a laptop in New York containing personal details of more than 170,000 Irish blood donors is “incredibly sloppy”, the Dáil heard today.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore also called for a review of how government bodies store private information from members of the public.
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) confirmed today that an employee of the New York Blood Service was mugged in the US city on February 7 and a CD containing the data was stolen.
The IBTS, which had entered into an agreement with its US counterpart to improve its security systems, said the chances of the data being accessed were very remote.
It said it is writing to all 171,374 people affected and launched a 1850 731 137 helpline number.
Raising the issue in the Dáil, Mr Gilmore said: “All of this seems to be incredibly sloppy and ironic. You set out to secure all this data and somebody is walking around New York with it hung over their shoulder in the street and it ends up being stolen. There is something incredibly sloppy about all of this.”
The TD warned of the dangers of identity theft and asked the Data Protection Commissioner to review the storage of personal information by Government departments.
Replying, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the stolen disc had the names, addresses and contact numbers for 171,374 blood donors.
The Data Protection Commissioner was informed of the incident on February 11 and is investigating the circumstances.
Mr Ahern said the IBTS was deeply concerned at the theft, but emphasised that the data was securely encrypted.
Mr Gilmore said: “It gives rise to concerns about the security which attaches to personal information people supply to government bodies and agencies.”
He said more than 80 desktops, laptops and blackberries have been stolen or lost from government departments over the past five years.
In the UK, a computer disc containing the personal information of 25 million people was lost, he added.
“People need to have some confidence that that information is secure. Identity theft is a big danger nowadays.” he told the Dáil.
