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SIX MINISTERS AND three junior ministers have admitted to using their private email addresses to send government information, but all claim no “sensitive” information was sent unsecurely.
Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald, Housing Minister Simon Coveney, Minister for Education Richard Bruton and Minister for Health Simon Harris have all used their personal email accounts for official work. Ministers Michael Creed and Heather Humphreys also outlined they have in the past used their unsecure private email accounts to send official government information.
Email security specialist and consultant Brian Honan said government departments need to be “aware of the risks posed by staff using their personal email for official work”. If any official information is sent through personal gmail accounts then the department “can no longer guarantee the appropriate security and privacy controls are in place to protect that data” Honan outlined.
Honan continued to say that government departments are required by law under various acts and regulations like the Data Protection Act to ensure they keep data and information they send “secure at all times”.
Honan has previously worked with the Irish government on information security, and said a set policy was needed to better lay out “the rules and framework for the acceptable usage of email” for official work.
‘Non-sensitive official information’
Housing Minister Simon Coveney said he has used his private email account for “communications on certain matters, such as diary issues, speeches and information updates, but generally not for the purposes of confidential official business”.
Richard Bruton, the Minister for Education said he has used his personal email account to receive “non-sensitive official information” on occasion. “Material was usually sent to my personal email where I was not accompanied by a member of staff, and where there was an urgent need to communicate information to me, often in advance of media appearances,” Minister Bruton explained.
The disclosures from the senior cabinet members follow a series of parliamentary questions put to every minister by Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath.
Before Christmas, Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil that on occasion he has used his personal email account for official business, and that he was aware of the security risk involved.
He said:
Obviously, I generally use the corporate e-mail for official purposes. In the past, there have been occasions when I have used that personal e-mail because of operational reasons. However, information does not go there from the secured encrypted e-mails. Government agenda or business comes to me via encrypted e-mail addresses.
He had been asked by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, while Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams and Labour’s Brendan Howlin also voiced their concerns about private email usage. Their comments came in the wake of news about Russian hackers accessing accounts connected to the USA’s Democratic and Republican parties.
Minister for Health Simon Harris also said in reply to McGrath that he has “on rare occasions” used his gmail account to send and receive government information. The Wicklow TD argued that “while a review is underway, there is currently no policy preventing members of Government using personal accounts”.
Tánaiste and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald outlined that like most people she has a personal email address. The minister revealed she has on “very rare occasions, used this address in relation to my role”.
McGrath told TheJournal.ie that the ministers “are potentially leaving themselves open to having sensitive government information stolen and used inappropriately”.
“In recent weeks and months, we have seen widespread attempts at hacking various European governments. The Irish government cannot leave itself open to attack,” Deputy McGrath warned.
Ministers all have an official department email account they are advised to use for sending information on any government work, as the accounts are encrypted. This essentially means there’s a layer of security that would help block any attempted hack.
Private accounts are not encrypted and as such are more vulnerable to hacking attempts from outside parties.
Heather Humphreys, who is Minister for Arts and the Gaeltacht said that she does “make use of a private gmail account” for work. She explained that she uses her personal account on her mobile phone “to forward information of a non-sensitive nature to my private office, generally relating to diary appointments or constituency matters”.
Michael Creed, the government Minister for Agriculture said he does use a “personal gmail account for official correspondence that is non-sensitive”.
Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath stated that “the Taoiseach should now direct all government ministers to use their departmental or Oireachtas emails for government business”.
Under review
A government spokesperson confirmed that “there is currently no policy preventing members of government from using personal accounts for official business”. But continued to outline that this situation is “currently under review”.
Three junior ministers, Eoghan Murphy, Patrick O’Donovan, and Séan Kyne also admitted to using their unsecured personal emails to send official information.
The junior minister for public expenditure Eoghan Murphy, who used his personal account for what was described as “transactional purposes” of information has recently “put in place arrangements for this to cease” his department stated.
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How about we refer to the police who managed to catch him as masterminds and refer to this guy as a brainwashed fool?
Is the Journal going to post the story of the Jewish teacher in Marseille stabbed by 3 muslims singing the praises of ISIS?
Of course not…
Wouldn’t fit the narrative that leftist publications like to promote that Muslims in Europe are now under siege, would it?
You need help Sertorius. Disturbed person.
Literally no one is pushing that narrative except the voices in your head.
Yes I need help because I mentioned a relevant story that the Journal has failed to cover.
I find it odd that the story hasn’t been given the coverage it deserves. The woman was stabbed for no reason other than the fact she was Jewish. People are very quick to criticise when European or American Jews decide to move to Israel but are very quiet as to why they are flocking there in record numbers. The sad reality is that it is a very dangerous time to be Jewish in Europe.
Results of mutliculturalism in Europe
The ICI is very quiet lately. I would have thought of all people Denise Charlatan should now be invited by the Journal.ie to write an article on this. She had plenty of free publicity for long enough to spout unchallenged propaganda. She talks about anti-trafficking laws constantly and I’d like to see her thoughts on open borders.
Good question Alesis..I miss M’s Charlatan…
Feeney must have pulled the plug on that race baiting mob’s funding.
Remember these are only extremists, absolutely not directed by islam to do any of this, no direction whatsoever
I completely agree, calling someone like this a “mastermind ” makes it sound complimentary . He should be shown absolutely no recognition, intended or not for his inhuman actions.
There’s nothing wrong with multiculturalism.. Apart from certain Muslims who are fundamentalists and don’t want to change and don’t respect certain countries laws and ways if life .. Look at Canada? One of the finest countries in the world and it’s full of multiculturalism.. There’s no problem with Chinese in Ireland, Japanese, Indian, British, Spanish, American etc.. It’s just certain backward Muslims people are afraid of.. That doesn’t make me racist. It’s a fact
Didn’t ICI use to make paint?
There isn’t a problem with Muslims in Europe, Sertorius. There is most definitely a problem in France with the unintegrated North African community, and there has been for a long time. Where socio-economic divisions also fall along religious divisions, fanatical religious nutjobs find plenty of willing victims to brainwash.
@MulticultBloodbath. …….And mostly Euro APPEASEMENT paticularly French APPEASEMENT of Islamo-Fascists Abass,Hamas,boycotting,labeling,etc.,etc.,etc. The gratitude was expressed to the French nation in last ‘Fri. night after prayers’ Paris terror rampage .—– Just as the school-yard bully does with his appeasing victims-slap them around continuously.
We must stop APPEASING whether in the Mid-East or anywhere. ISIS/HAMAS/BOKO HARAM just laughs at APPEASERS/COWARDS and get themselves ready to throw more contemptuous terror attacks at us
We must stop the Jew-hating that is banishing our most productive civilized people in exchange for parasites and fifth.column troublemakers.
We must support,not villify, the democratic state of Israel that is putting up with terror on an daily basis.
Vive LaFrance,L’Europe Libre.
@Andrea Rock Massey….. The chance of exchanging 1 productive,tax-paying ,law-abiding,assimilated Jewish person for 500 mostly unskilled ,welfare-dependent and unwilling to assimilate Muslims is too much for our leaders to turn down.
@MulticultBloodbath……..Not directed by Islam whatsoever! Or everything down to the last detail directed by Islam! Try a read about Islamic theoretician Sheik Abu-Bakr Naji.author of ‘The Management of Savagery’ in the New York Post last week.
—”It happened because the Islamic State, the latest version of the Islamo-apocalyptic movement, has decided that Western democracies, representing the “Infidel” world, are no longer prepared to fight even to preserve their comfortable lives. The Paris attacks came on the first day of the Muslim lunar month of Safar, which coincides with the anniversary of the Prophet Mohammed’s first successful “ghazva” (raid) against the “infidel” at Safwan in 623 AD.
The Islamic State is already referring to the Paris attacks as another “ghazva,” promising many more. The aim is to terrorize all mankind into submitting to the diktats of The Only True Faith.—-”
http://nypost.com/2015/11/15/the-jihadis-master-plan-to-break-us/
Spot on Damien Roche. I cringe when I hear these terrorists referrred to as “masterminds”.. It takes a twisted mind to kill over a hundred people. Not a master mind
Was there ever a safe time, to be Jewish in Europe, Andrea.?
I dont like this ‘mastermind’ label
In situations like this the definition of mastermind can be planner, architect, organiser.
Agreed… This is no comic book story and he’s no genius. He’s a terrorist ringleader.
He probably was a genius in his own right to plan and carry out such a complex attack, an incredibly evil genius though
If it’s any consolation, his ‘mastermind’ is now splattered all over his living room.
Specialised subject…….De Nonce ‘Profit’ and la guerre en secularisme!
72 sheep! Baaaaahhhhhhaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
Maybe it’s the river of wine they’re told flows in heaven.
Its probably only the young impressionable ‘foot soldiers’ who believe the 72 virgins crap, the so called masterminds of these terrorist acts are more than likely psychopaths who only want to kill loads of people
Not really Dave, during the raids the terrorists were all shouting ‘praise Allah, we have avenged the prophit’ constantly.
Let’s not excuse these people with any kind of disorders like psychopathy. These are clearly sane people compelled to kill because of a warped violent ideology in much the same way of the nazis. This is what makes this problem truly terrifying
@Michael Stack. How about ‘ba*tardmind’! Would that be a betterfit.
Good.
Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!
Great. Go after them before they attack. There are more like him around. Get them one by one…
Taken into Europe, given the chance to live a European life with all its opportunities and freedom- and this is the result.
And a happy new year!
he was born and bred in Belgium
im still glad he has been vaporized from this planet
Have you been to Brussels and Belgium much…I have about five times a year for last while…..the Belgians are mental and no community is integrated…..the prostitution in Brussels is shocking….The world record for a democracy going without an elected government is held by Belgium, which went 589 days in 2010-11 because the opposing Flemish and Walloons were unable to agree on policy issues and form a governing coalition following national elections……they don’t get on and immigrants of any colour don’t integrate….name famous Belgian things….beer, chocolate….Poirot…Tin Tin writer…..the stupid kid with funny choiff….the smurfs….Jean Claude Van Damme….and of course ….Marc du Tru….the first person know to lock kids in base,nets abuse and starve them…..and his wife was just released last year from prison……nutty country…..
Good
Good!…..can’t understand the red thumbs WTF?
I personally would have like to have seen him taken alive. You can’t beat information out of a dead man. I’m pretty sure this guy has cohorts planning other attacks.
Unlikely this f**ker would have allowed himself to be taken alive
I’d rather this lad water boarded and giving up some names to be honest.
Unpopular thing to say but research shows waterboarding didn’t give up any credible or correct Intel. Ask the Americans
Well intel or not I’ll get a perverse sense of justice from it.
Forget waterboarding him, he should have been captured and forced to listen to westlife, two hours of that and you’d get all the Intel you need.
Enjoy your so called virgins! Pr!ck.
Hopefully his Dick got blown off
Yes, that piece of dirt is dead. Pity that they could not take extra information before being crushed like a cockroach.
Anyway in his paradise of innocent killers, he is going to suffer!
He will need to satisfy 40 virgins every day for eternity!!!
Correction, paradise of killers of innocents!
Yes! Vive la France!
Would’ve been nice to get intelligence from him. But at least they got him.
Let’s hope that it is happening right now… No one will ask about wellbeing of the dead man.
I doubt it. It’s not like anyone would be too put out by the thought of him having his teeth yanked out or fingers sandpapered away.
“Allah not so akbar after all”
I dont understand why they name these people and show their pictures making them martyrs within their own groups.they should be left nameless and disappear into obscurity.is there a reason why they do this??
To show their own citizens they got him and he’s not still running around France.
They don’t need Western media to make them martyrs. These groups are very adept at social media. e.g. There are thousands of pro-ISIS Twitter accounts.
If police just announced that ‘we got the man who organised it’, and released no further details, do you think people would really believe it?
Good!! Hope he rots in hell!
Well he did want to go see Allah
Up to his neck in pigs blood
There is no Allah
Good good.
Hope he was terrified when he died
+1
Some good news to brighten up the day
Pity he died so fast, torture would have been a better way.
You want to reduce our civilisation to his level Paul?
Well he started it so I think he deserved no better.
Hope it was slow and painful.
Now get the rest if these vermin.
Great news!!!
Good
He got off lightly!
Pity. Would have liked to see him answer for his crimes
What so he can while away the rest of his days in a cushy Western European radicalising other inmates? Getting clipped is the best outcome for this animal.
Western European prison
Exactly…. my thoughts the same…
Exactly. My thoughts are same on this matter.
So ugly.. inbreed with horse..
Hey easy on the “horse”, please!
I hope he died, burning and screaming and bleeding out on the ground and maybe even lived long enough to look around at his broken smashed body and to see the sweet joy of revenge in his killers eyes.
You said it all
wonderfully put.
Place some pork products on his corpse and bury him at secret location / release photos
Delighted to read this
Ah the poor lad. NOT. Well done to the French security services.
Fair play
Wonderful news, well done the RAID and BRI here in France!
Hope he dies screaming, the pig
Won’t bring back my son’s mate. Nor prevent another taking his place
* justice *
The only way to prevent this happening again is carpet bombing the source – Belgium.
Hopefully a slow painful death for him! Deserved every bit of pain for what he’s done and the suffering and grief he’s caused others.
Great news. But how many others are waiting to take his place?
Fantastic but pity they didn’t get him alive so they could torture information out of him
Enjoy your 72 sows !
Another one will take his place , it’s never ending war
I hope he died slowly and painfully.
Disgusted with some comments on here. Wishing that he could have been taken alive and tortured? We’re all shocked, saddened and angry at the terrorist acts that have taken lives, but that does not mean that we forget our humanity and start baying for human rights violations.
Well said Jim. Mob mentality at work again on the Journal comment section.
It does though. Human rights only apply to humans.
Id like to see you tell that to the families of the dead, Jim
I’d say it to anyone. I think what he did was heinous and he deserves to be punished to the full extent of the law for that. However, I don’t support the death penalty in any form. I’d rather he had been captured and gone to trial so that we could see actual justice at work rather than vengeance.
Ronan, believing that someone can unilaterally decide if someone else is human or not is the road that leads to all this. I’m sure believing that the victims are subhuman makes it a lot easier to justify killing them. And David, I would happily say it to the families of the dead. We do not civilize others by de-civilizing ourselves. This ‘find a scapegoat to enact vengeance upon’ approach might satisfy the masses, but it doesn’t and can’t fix the problem. In fact, I guarantee it will make it worse. Just ask George W.
Nice. Nothing like swift and firm justice. Although it may have been nicer to see him rot in a French jail
Good
Justice!
Let him rot in hell.
Good….the sad part is he’s now a role model,a hero for his Sunni Muslim Jihadis throughout Europe…no doubt some Irish folk will exonerate him from his crimes.
Hope he not to disappointed when the 70 virgins don’t turn up …the Dick Head wanted to die they done him a favour….rot in hell
Glad hes dead but wud luved him to hav suffered more and been tortured.. Evil yoke!!
A pity. He should have been strung up and displayed in Paris for friends and relatives of the dead and injured to see and given a long and painful death.
His shattered body strung up and left for the crows to feast on
Good riddance.
Good but not relevant as there are 10,000 more ready to take his place.
Very true
It’s very relevant to me. Everyone here knows or knows of a person killed last Friday
Ya gotta start somewhere, Aoife!
I don’t know anyone killed last friday but still relevant as they know they can only run for so long and can’t hide
Great news.
Hope he enjoys his 72 raisins with Osama.
I’m always doubtful when they claim the body was so badly damaged they could only positively identify him by a fingerprint… kind like when they “Killed” Osama and took the body away… makes me kinda hope they’ve taken them into captivity to interagate information out of them then put them in a rocket and drop them on the moon telling them “Let Allah, get you out of this one…”
Good news story
Sometimes I wish there was a hell for monsters like him.
Riddance and rubbish spring to mind
Hope he died and suffered in excruciating agony. By the way, there is no Allah and no virgins waiting for him.
Who is red thumbing comments of people saying its good he is dead??
Great news hope he rots in hell
Great this one has a long trip to Hell where he will meet no doubt lots of his comrades
Excellent news!
Hurrah….The world is now a little safer.
I’m sooooooooo devastated
I wish he had been tortured …..a long slow painful death ….. To see the look of fear in HIS eyes!
These people think it’s all about “glory” going to their deaths with the quick blast from a suicide vest ….. well they should be captured and let’s see how brave they would be if slowly tortured . …. let them feel fear too.
At last, some good news…
Great news
ROT in hell, evil baastard.
Rot in hell… Torture.. Pubic hanging…..No… Place pork products on the corpse….. Take photos…. Bury at secret location…. Show photo to is / friends ect.. Repeat as necessary … That is worse than death to these sub humans… Removes martyrdom Removes 20 vestel virgins Condemns their souls to the worst hell beyond comprehension…… Also works on slow learners
The Barbarians Are Inside, And There Are No Gates
by Mark Steyn
Steyn on Europe
November 13, 2015
As I write, Paris is under curfew for the first time since the German occupation, and the death toll from the multiple attacks stands at 158, the vast majority of them slaughtered during a concert at the Bataclan theatre, a delightful bit of 19th century Chinoiserie on the boulevard Voltaire. The last time I was there, if memory serves, was to see Julie Pietri. I’m so bloody sick of these savages shooting and bombing and killing and blowing up everything I like – whether it’s the small Quebec town where my little girl’s favorite fondue restaurant is or my favorite hotel in Amman or the brave freespeecher who hosted me in Copenhagen …or a music hall where I liked to go to hear a little jazz and pop and get away from the cares of the world for a couple of hours. But look at the photographs from Paris: there’s nowhere to get away from it; the barbarians who yell “Allahu Akbar!” are there waiting for you …when you go to a soccer match, you go to a concert, you go for a drink on a Friday night. They’re there on the train… at the magazine office… in the Kosher supermarket… at the museum in Brussels… outside the barracks in Woolwich…
Read more:
http://www.steynonline.com/7293/the-barbarians-are-inside-and-there-are-no-gates
Is he wearing an Aran sweater?
Hamdullah !
If the lads get 40 virgins ,what do the girls get ?!
Bitchin’!!
one i believe.
looks like a radical lunatic…but some of the comments here are sickening. Is he the real mastermind I wonder
rot in hell
Let’s hope this is misinformation & the guy off on holidays to Cuba
If he did get lifted he’s probably at one of Frances black sites and don’t think they don’t have some lovely ones. They have outposts in some of the most god awful places on earth. One of those malaria infested islands of French Guyana would be perfect for the job.
These basta–s should be caught tortured and killed. .They have no regard for anything or anyone except there own warped believes. Allah my arse
Rest in peaces, a##hole.
so when do we invade Belgium looking for WMD’s ?
I’m not going into a long option about him but just to say his smirk sickens me. He won’t rest in peace.
Wow
Mastermind? Really?!
Say it ain’t so
“The more you can increase fear of drugs, crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all of the people.”
― Noam Chomsky
Delighted he’s dead. Better than a twenty year stretch with a comfy cell and visiting rights.
I’m most annoyed at the following-
1. He’s giving Aran sweaters a bad rap.
2. Is it just me or does he look like the plastic masked ‘Burger king’ King weirdo?
“suspected” .
I’m an Atheist but if there is a Hell then I hope this depraved cvnt is roasting in it currently screaming his lungs out in agony while he roasts very slowly for all eternity.
A mastermind dos not get caught, this DOG failed, not a mastermind….
BBC video report on Ahmad Al Mohammad, the alleged Syrian who came in via the Greek island of Lerros http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34839187
He was one of the bombers
Bloody fantastic. ..good riddance
Rot in hell u worthless piece of shit. U have caused so much hurt and misery to innocent people.
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