Líofa Apologises Over Website Security

The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure has apologised to users of the Lίofa website after it was revealed that personal details of its users could be accessed online.

It is understood names and contact details of Líofa participants could be accessed via the website's search facility.

The details that could be found were the details participants had to provide when they first registered with Líofa; this includes name, age range, email address, home address and whether or not they were attending Irish Language classes. It is this information that is thought to have been accessible. The website did not have any other personal or financial information.

The Líofa website was launched as part of a campaign to encourage more people to learn Irish. The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure said it has had "lead responsibility for the website content management" since February 2014, but did not have lead responsibility for data protection until September of this year.

Apologising for the data breach, Minister Carál Nί Chuilίn has said the site has now been temporarily shut down.

She said: "I am very sorry that some participants' names and other information which they had provided could have been found using the website's search facility.

"While it is disturbing that this should have been the case, at this stage there is no evidence that this information has been accessed or misused in any way.

"On the Department's instruction the website has been shut down and the Department asked accredited IT security experts to establish the full extent of the website's vulnerabilities.

"Once we know what the problems are we will address them, and then we must have the website thoroughly checked and accredited before we bring it back online."

(JP/CD)