The education secretary of Northern Ireland has issued a sincere apology after the personal information of over 400 individuals who volunteered to assist with a review of special needs education was accidentally leaked.
The breach was discovered when the Department of Education mistakenly sent a spreadsheet to 174 individuals, containing the names, email addresses, and job titles of 407 people interested in participating in the review of special educational needs events in Northern Ireland.
The spreadsheet included comments from several individuals.
The department has requested the 174 recipients to delete the information they received and has confirmed that this has been done.
Many affected individuals have reported their concerns to authorities regarding the data breach.
Education Secretary Paul Givhan stated, “The Department of Education takes data protection seriously and deeply regrets this incident. We apologize to all those impacted and have informed them about the breach.”
Givan has ordered an internal audit department to conduct a thorough investigation into the data leak to prevent such incidents in the future.
An initial report has been submitted to the Information Commissioner’s Office, and updates will be provided as the investigation progresses.
This data breach is not the first in Northern Ireland, as a similar incident occurred last year involving the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Around 5,000 officers and staff from PSNI took legal action after personal details of approximately 9,500 employees were mistakenly disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The leaked information included employee last names, initials, ranks, grades, workplaces, and departments, and was later discovered to have reached dissident republicans.
Source: www.theguardian.com
