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The Department of Agriculture has admitted that some 759 farmers were affected by a data breach relating to payments under the Knowledge Transfer (KT) programme.
A beef farmer – who wished to remain anonymous – contacted the Irish Farmers Journal with a copy of a letter sent to him on 7 June by the Department apologising for a data breach regarding a KT beef agency payment report.
“I am writing to inform you that an accidental disclosure of your personal information occurred on 16 May 2018 resulting in a breach of personal data under data protection legislation,” the letter from the Department reads.
“A KT beef agency payment report regarding participant payments issued incorrectly to two KT payment agencies to whom the payments did not relate.
“Please note the file was password protected. However, it is possible the information contained therein may have been accessed,” it said.
The letter goes on to list that personal details contained within the file included the participant’s name, herd number and the value of payments.
When contacted by the Irish Farmers Journal, the Department stated: “At the end of May DAFM officials became aware that a report relating to payments under the KT programme had issued by email to two KT facilitators unconnected with the KT groups in question.
“The reports in question related to 759 farmers in beef KT groups.”
The Department went on to state that it had received confirmation from the agencies that the files had been deleted and that it had reported the breach to the office of the data protection officer.
“The affected farmers were notified in writing in early June as per the procedure for such cases. Corrective procedures have been put in place,” the Department added.
The Department wrote to the Irish Farmers Journal on 12 September to deny that any form of data breach had occurred within the forestry KT programme, but the letter made no mention of the beef data breach within the KT programme.
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