Data protection website not hacked, says chief

DATA Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes was left red-faced yesterday after a blogger “hacked” into his office’s website and managed to access his office’s annual report prior to its official publication.

The incident occurred just after Mr Hawkes voiced concern in recent weeks about several incidents where there have been potential breaches of legislation governing data protection.

They included the discovery of personal medical records at a former dump in Cork, the theft of laptops from Bank of Ireland staff containing personal account details and the disclosure of property sales figures by estate agents.

Asked yesterday at the official launch of the 2007 report if he was embarrassed by the latest incident, Mr Hawkes replied: “Not exceptionally.”

The Data Protection Commissioner explained that the annual report had been pre-loaded on the office’s website in preparation for yesterday’s launch.

“It is relatively easy to access the document so I wasn’t particularly concerned. Information on the website is obviously information we intend to make public. It is not confidential,” he said.

“It just means you all had the opportunity to read it three hours in advance,” he joked.

Mr Hawkes said the incident was a minor issue which did not cause his office any particular concern. It did not constitute computer-hacking, as a blogger was able to access the report on the website by double-guessing its URL — the specific webpage link. Mr Hawkes said no data protection legislation had been broken as no personal information had been accessed unlawfully.

It emerged yesterday well-known computer expert and blogger Damien Mulley had accessed the material and posted content details on a website. Mr Mulley is a technical writer for a Cork IT company and founder of the annual Irish Blog Awards. He also writes a technology column for the Sunday Tribune.