Teaching Council fined €60,000 after teacher data leaked in phishing scam

The initial breach occurred when two council staff members opened a suspicious email, which facilitated the creation of an auto-forward rule allowing for emails to be forwarded from the council’s servers to a malicious Gmail address. 

The statutory body with responsibility for regulating teachers has been fined €60,000 after the personal data of more than 9,700 people was leaked via a phishing scam.

The Data Protection Commission delivered the fine, and a reprimand, to the Teaching Council following an investigation spanning just under two years.