§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on how many occasions in each of the past five years computer systems in his Department have been illegally accessed by computer hackers(a) within and (b) outside the Department. [102834]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 15 December 1999]: Over the past five years there have been two reported occasions on which my Department's computer systems have been illegally accessed by computer hackers. One incident reported in 1996 was external and the other in 1999 was internal and both were classified as minor incidents. There was also one minor incident reported in 1999 which, technically speaking, did not involve access by computer hackers but where one of my Department's systems was illegally used as a redistribution point for e-mail traffic. There have also been five reported unsuccessful hacking attempts over the past five years. These figures include next step agencies.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many cases of computer(a) hacking,(b) fraud, including fraudulent use of computer chips and (c) theft his Department has recorded in the last five years. [102835]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 15 December 1999]: Records of IT security incidents reported within my Department for the period in question show:
Year Hacking incidents (excluding minor incidents of computer misuse) Fraud (all computer chip thefts) Theft (excluding computer chips) 1995 4 14 48 1996 1 8 30 1997 0 2 17 1998 1 5 20 1999 2 4 15 Two of the hacking incidents were successful but of a minor nature.
One of the 1999 hacking incidents, technically speaking did not involve the hacking into a computer. In this particular incident, an e-mail server was illegally used to 454W redistribute e-mail messages. The incident was the result of a temporary configuration error which was then corrected.
These figures include next step agencies.