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Lord Chancellors Dept

Answer

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, pursuant to his answer of 31 January 2000, Official Report, column 472W, on computers, what type of information was accessed by the hackers from computers in the Court Service; and what action was taken (a) to identify the hackers and (b) to discipline Court Service staff involved in the incidents. [109389] Jane Kennedy: The type of information potentially available to an internal `hacker' varies according to the system accessed. Approximately half of the incidents involved standalone PCs or networked PCs used in the Headquarters of the Lord Chancellor's Department for administrative purposes; the remainder involved operational systems, such as those used for case management. Most incidents involved misuse of another member of staff's user name and password. The information potentially at risk was either a person's own work in progress, or in a few instances, details of cases. All incidents were investigated and remedial action applied. No evidence of compromise of Protectively Marked (or classified) information nor of a breach of the Data Protection Acts was found. The staff responsible were identified in half of the incidents and all received verbal warnings, except for one who received a written warning and one who was dismissed.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

344 c238W;344 c238-9W; 109389

Session

1999-00

Subjects

Disciplinary proceedings Disclosure of information Crime Computers Lord Chancellor's Department Security Hacking Court Service