Written question asked by Brian White (Labour) on Wednesday, 13 November 2002, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 25 November 2002. It was answered by Lord Blunkett (Labour) on Monday, 25 November 2002 on behalf of the Home Office.

Home Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he has taken to review the security of the Department's IT system; and how many digital attacks there were on the Department's system in (a) October and (b) 2002 - Inc figure.

Answer: Brian White: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken to review the security of the Department's IT system; and how many digital attacks there were on the Department's system in (a) October and (b) 2002. [80777] Mr. Blunkett: The Home Office and its agencies use a variety of information technology (IT) systems, ranging from stand-alone machines to large networks. Those systems processing sensitive information are subject to on-going IT security accreditation checks by the Departmental Security Unit. The number of cases of digital attacks detected on Home Office systems was (a) 108 in October and (b) 2,518 in 2002. All these cases involved the detection and prevention of computer viruses. There were no recorded instances of hacking.

Secondary information