‘Different purpose’ for INM data search

Independent News and Media company has advised the 19 people caught up in an alleged data breach the information belonging to them may have been “searched more extensively and for a different purpose” than first thought.

In letters issued to past and current employees of INM affected by the alleged breach, the company said the context in which the risk of unauthorised disclosure occurred dated back to 2014 when “a number of INM’s back-up tapes — containing backup copies of electronic data, such as emails to and from INM email addresses and digital files, stored on INM’s servers as at 2014 — were provided to a third-party service provider on the instruction of the then-Chairman of INM.”

Leslie Buckley, INM’s former chairman, has already said he will be “robustly defending” similar allegations reportedly made by the Director of Corporate Enforcement Ian Drennan in a High Court affidavit. It was reported yesterday Mr Buckley was not commenting on the INM letter.