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THE ROAD SAFETY Authority (RSA) has confirmed tonight that a data breach on the new driver licence website affected over 700 people.
The authority said in a statement that there has been a problem with the ‘Contact Us’ form on the National Driving Licence Service (NDLS) website which is used to submit general queries.
“It appears that the facility may not have ‘refreshed’ itself and deleted the previous queries as quickly as it should have, in all cases, to enable the next user to submit their query via the electronic ‘Contact Us’ form,” the RSA said.
A total of 721 people have used this service to submit queries since the site launched on 29 October. the RSA said the details submitted in each form “will vary depending on what the applicant input onto the ‘Contact Us’ form”.
However an initial review of the communications indicates that the majority are of a “general nature” and the RSA stressed that the service is not used for payments or applications.
The RSA is taking steps to contact all 721 users affected and complete a review of their emails and follow up with each person affected.
The ‘Contact Us’ form has been removed from the website and replaced with an email address for people to send queries to.
“The RSA sincerely apologises to its customers for the inconvenience this may has have caused,” it said.
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has also been notified of the breach.
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My father spent 3 hours in the queue for his licence last week. These new centres are a joke.
He filled printed out the form on the centre’s website, filled it in and brought it with him as instructed. He waited for 3 hours, got to the counter, and was told they didn’t accept that form. They told him he had the wrong form and even though it was on the website, it shouldn’t have been. Irate, he told them they “bloody well will accept it”.
They did eventually. Then they typed his name in to the system and got back 300 people with the same name as his. They had to go through each name one by one until they found him !!! Took 45 mins.
Welcome to Ireland.
I’m tempted to text him and tell him about this breach, but he’ll blow a fuse methinks :}
and E35 for the new licence folks.
Its typical we can’t do anything right in this country
So this new system can’t search with a dob or old licence number? Wonder how much their IT depot costs a yr
Yeah Victoria, it’s a new EU licence, the old one is gone as of now,and it’s causing major headaches for them. You have to have your picture taken in the offices too I believe. You can no longer go to the photo booth or pharmacy for the photo’s,
Either way, it’s a farce. It has all the hallmarks of one Minister Phil Hogan. I think it comes under his remit, though I’m not certain.
I think the steps taken should be to shut down the website for a week, while they contact all 721 users affected, just like last week when they decided to shut the centers in Dublin for a week. backwards is the right way with this government. yet they still have ‘support’ according to last polls!
Surely diving licences and the RSA fall under the remit of the Dept of Transport?
Huge amount of off-the-road declarations (over 100,000 made up to the start of October), and has caused massive back log.
I think it’s Hogan.
http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovernment/MotorTax/News/MainBody,32736,en.htm
Motor tax would be local Government. He;s Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.
He was responsible for closing the tax “loophole” too.
Yep, it’s his baby.
A good loop hole to close – motor tax receipts in September up by 30.5%.
Whatever about closing loopholes, the fact that the very same tax offices are now closing to deal with the backlog is a joke.
That, Soneps, is sackable in any other walk of life – private sector, and so should be in his case,
Yet, the want your PPS number aswell, the primary key for us all – can still a delay.
Why would the motortax backlog have any affect on the driving licence farce? Hasn’t it been removed to a separate entity from the motor tax offices?
Also were motor tax receipts actually up 30% in Sept or is it motor tax declarations that are up?
Motor tax receipts are up by 22.8 million for that month – 30%.
“Motor tax receipts are up by 22.8 million for that month – 30%”
That’s great news, if you’re German.
Ok thanks for clarifying.
why would this effect the issuing of driving licences?
Because up to the 26 October the Motor Tax offices were still doing the driving licences.
So since the 26th of October motor tax offices have nothing to do with it then ..
@ Alan Farrell. Oh I think we can do things right in this country; it is those in state jobs with no fear of reprisal who don’t seem to mind getting things wrong.As for the rest of us in the private sector, well we have consequences to face if we don’t give 100%.
I am waiting over 5 weeks for my new license, my insurance company will revoke my policy if i dont send a copy of it within a few days, wont send my disk either , the NCT refused to pass my car because i had no license to show them, even though i showed a receipt and the number of my license .
this is pure nonsense
You need to act on that Richard. Fast. Write to Pat Kenny or contact Joe Duffy. Do something anyway fella. Don’t wait around where insurance is concerned.
Someone told me recently that the real culprit behind the delays was the stamping out of the “off the road” car tax system. I’ve no idea whether that’s true or not, so don’t quote me on it. But I was told that’s where the problem stems from to some degree – the backlog of people involved when t was announced you could no longer get the form signed by the cops declaring your vehicle off the road caused a panic and a rush and it caused havoc.
Richard if you have a valid passport they will give you your NCT certificate :0)
Yes Luke, you are right, the delay is due to the new “off the road” car tax craic. Madness. Our tax office, North Tipperary, is now closing for a full week just to deal with the backlog.
Insurance company are required by law to send you the disk as soon as you pay. I’d get onto the regulator.
@Siobhan, yes i know but did not have it with me on the day of the test.
Welcome to “Its The Law” Fine Gael’s new answer to every question.
Richard, we had the same problem, however we rang the indurance company, told them that there is a 4 to 6 week wait for licenses to be returned but we could send proof of application if required. They agreed to release the disc but we must send the xerox of the license once it comes. Insurance companies are aware of the backlog
I do really feel saddened for you .its shocking.but if the insurance company your with should understand the problem if they don’t you don’t have to be loyal to them in any ways.so tell them good bye.they don’t like to lose business .
thanks folks , contacted insurance co., and they have agreed to wait , they know there is a problem.
These problems must be driving them mad.
Driving the poor customers around the bend more like!
This breach of privacy is happening way too much and easily lately. First the Get Aways crowd with SuperValu and to a lesser extent this. People’s confidential information being bandied about is a bit Irish.
Doesn’t make sense! When the next person logged in, did he not see the last person’a details and think “I’m not leaving my details!”
This makes no sense… were all 721 users on the same computer?
I would also like to know this.
Yeah my under stampeding of contact forms and I’ve made a few but would be no expert. The form is read by the browser and viewed locally the user types in their details and when they press send these details are transmitted and stored. The processing takes place on the server that the page came from. How did the data from one pc get transferred to another. Anyone care to Harvard a guess
Love to know how much they paid for that website too.
This Dept seems to be run from the monkey hut in the Zoo
Another disaster overseen by the Road safety Authority, There tech skills are an absolute joke, For example there systems are not comparable with Apple products so any driving instructor can’t upload completed EDT lessons to the RSA if they have an iMac or iPad.
2 years ago I raised the issue with those in charge of the Driving instructors (ADI) unit, Still waiting for a response from them, The whole thing is a farce !
The RSA the Quango that bring you cash cameras, and the one year NCT for the same price as a Two year Nct,And The Driver CPC just to mention a few.
The website looks like it was created in 2003, I do hope it came free with a box of corn fakes.
Contact Us = No reply, No change there then.
Country’s going backwards
Maybe there should be an article on projects that the government or semi-state bodies didn’t screw up or go over budget on.
Oh wait…….
shortest article ever methinks!
I build websites and if they had a standard PHP form builder encoded it would not be happening as it sends straight to email address. Sounds like they have a vulnerability with the setup with the mySQL Database.. Sounds like it has issues and no reason for that to be linked to a general contact form.. So ultimately they have paid for an over complicated contact form for a start
And please.. Anyone correct me if I’m wrong here
The website uses Joomla CMS, so it’s probably a plugin that was used to send the form data.
Either way, if it was designed properly, users should not be able to see what the last person submitted. It’s nothing to do with “not refreshing itself” – it simply shouldn’t operate that way. The form on the page should be unique to every user on the website.
No matter what technology they used to build the website, there’s really no reason that this should even be possible. You fill in a contact form, the data goes to the server and gets added to a database (or sent to an email address). It should not get sent back to your computer, and certainly should not get sent to someone else’s computer.
I’ve been building web forms for the best part of a decade and have never heard of this happening, anywhere, ever. You’d actually have to go out of your way to be this incompetent.
Ye are both wrong! The webshite uses Coola Boola!
It’s a Unix system, I know it!
@Sean: exactly. I’ve been building websites for about 5 years and have never heard of this.
Normally cms forms would write to the database as well as an email… Maybe the sites not sending the cookies and thinks that the last user has not submitted the form yet depending on the form plugin used. And because the last user is anyone as the site is not allocating individual identities in the form of cookies that could be the issue but wouldn’t then the ip address come into play then…
Only Doing websites for the past few years… Could be wrong…
Frano
Crap just like to e-voting machines so why not just scrap them now?
Somebodies job on the line for this cock up? I dont think so but if it was in the private
sector you would be shown the door fairly sharpish I’d say.
Contracted out to SGS, a private company, and I think the same people who do NCTs
Burn
With these new licenses someone who has a bus or truck category on their licence only gets a licence for 5 years,Yet they still have to pay €50 even though it’s not valid for 10 years like a car or motorbike licence.
Also why was this out sourced to a private company? what was wrong with the set up with the motor tax office.
And as for the RSA in a previous life if I had a question just say about vehicle standards or driver’s hours/WTD, I could simply call the section who looked after that query.
Now I have to call a centre in Ballina and wait for about 5/10 mins before getting to speak to someone,Who will then transfer my call to the relevant dept only in good aul Ireland would you have this crap.
Google “fake driving licence” . Maybe then people might know why we have a new system. There are thousands of drivers going around on a fake licence. Long overdue.
You drove right past the point there…
Ah what’s wrong with ye all ??? Have ye not seen the television add for these new centres, its all smiles and not a sign of a Que !!!
Don’t fix it if it’s not broken !
Another major fook up with technology for our great Isle. If it aint ready dont roll it out. Clowns of the highest order
Imagine the type of idiot that would get bothered by all of this
my licence is due for renewel in 2020, maybe they’ll have it fixed by then, but i wouldnt bet on it . for a government that puts so much emphisis on the I.T sector and ireland being a world leader in I.T. how come they seem to make a mess of every government website ?
What? This isnt how website forms work? No one on another device should be able to see any other persons details…its not how http requests work.
And if the security of a basic contact form is in question – what about the safety of your personal data stored on their systems….no need for concern I’m sure.
“SWITCH IT OFF,UNPLUG IT AND SWITCH IT BACK ON IN 3 MINUTES”.
another balls up by hogans heroes !
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