This week the state education and research body wrote to staff members alerting them to the security breach.

The Teagasc IT department carried out an investigation into the security of its payroll system following a report from a staff member. The report related to the security of its payroll systems and files; it concerned the 2008 payroll.

The Irish Farmers Journal has seen a copy of the letter, which states: “it emerged that during 2016, following an upgrade of our document management system, the security controls around the 2008 payroll files were altered, inadvertently opening up access within Teagasc to these files to unauthorised staff members”.

Investigation

The investigation found that some five members of staff had access to payroll files that they should not have had.

In the letter to staff, Teagasc says “staff members [involved] have each been contacted and have confirmed that they have not taken copies of these files, nor distributed the files to or shared them in any form with any other party internal or external to Teagasc”.

The letter, which is signed by Teagasc’s head of ICT Ronan Coady, states that the office of the Data Protection Commissioner has been informed.

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Full coverage: Teagasc