Minister must patch holes in Government’s cyber security

The New Zealand National Party

The Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister must take responsibility and act decisively in the wake of the unacceptable data breach at her ministry, National’s Arts Culture and Heritage spokesperson Nicky Wagner says.

“It’s not good enough that 302 people have had their private details exposed online by a so-called ‘coding error’. The public expects better from security systems overseen by the Government, and rightly so.

“The Minister must now ask some tough questions of her officials and act quickly to fix whatever problems exist with the Government’s cyber security, be they human or digital.

“This is not a good look so soon after Treasury officials uploaded sensitive Government Budget documents to the internet for the whole world to find by using a website search bar.

“Public confidence in the Government’s ability to keep their information safe and secure will be disappearing fast in the wake of this latest example of its incompetence when it comes to data protection.”

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