Database Breaches

Mr. Laws
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many confirmed security breaches of databases controlled by his Department occurred in each of the last five years; whether the breach resulted from internal or external sources in each case; how many records were compromised on each occasion; and what estimate was made of the total number of records accessible to the individuals concerned.

Mrs. McGuire
There have been no recorded security incidents of this type from external sources within the period since January 2001. However, as the table shows, 1,142 incidences of staff using legitimate access to databases to browse data for which they had no business requirement are recorded. Neither the number of records accessed on each occasion nor the potential number of records accessible is recorded.

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|     |Number of incidents|
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|2001 |56                 |
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|2002 |299                |
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|2003 |172                |
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|2004 |242                |
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|2005 |373                |
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|Total|1,142              |
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