The education minister has apologised for a data breach affecting hundreds of individuals who applied for Special Educational Needs (SEN) events in NI.
A probe is underway after an email issued to 174 individuals on Thursday who had registered interest in an End-to End Review of SEN erroneously included an attachment of a spreadsheet containing the names, email address and titles of 407 individuals.
The spreadsheet also included comments made by a number of individuals.
Paul Givan said his department is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the data breach.
“The department takes its responsibilities around data protection extremely seriously and we unreservedly apologise to all those affected as this should not have happened,” he said.
“The individuals involved have been contacted to make them aware of the data breach.
“I have instructed my departmental Permanent Secretary to launch a full and thorough investigation into the data breach and this will be led by Internal Audit. In parallel, the department will be working to put in place measures to help make sure this does not happen again.
“An initial notification has been made to the office of the Information Commissioner regarding the data breach and the department will continue to engage with them as they conduct their investigation.
“As our investigation continues, all those impacted, as well as the Information Commissioner’s Office, will be kept updated.”
The 174 individuals who received the personal data have been asked to delete the information and confirm they have done so.