Serious HSE data breaches risk patient safety

Stolen and missing HSE laptops containing sensitive files are just the latest in a long line of problems with the service’s data security, writes FiachraÓ Cionnaith.

IN an era of WikiLeaks data dumps, America’s NSA privacy scandal, and the unnerving feeling we are all increasingly living in an Orwellian world, it is comforting to know there are still some less-complicated ways to access information you officially have no right to see.

In a highly ironic variation on the idea that “all information is free”, the HSE has unwittingly made files and records available due to a failure to implement its own security policies.