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Departmental Computer Security

Volume 447: debated on Monday 19 June 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the security of chip and PIN access to his Department's computer systems; and how many breaches of that security there have been since its introduction. (75028)

The Department does not offer a “Chip and PIN” service for access to the Department's computer systems. The term “Chip and PIN” is normally used in the context of high street retail purchases.

Payments made to citizens via post offices can be made using a “Chip and PIN” capability, but this is managed by a third party.

Access to internal departmental systems is controlled using a desktop smartcard infrastructure which is a completely separate device to that used to enable citizen payments. The DWP security incident recording database records details of incidents investigated by DWP. There are no incidents recorded where the “Chip and PIN” security has been compromised.