‘NOBODY TOLD ME THAT MY NAME WAS ON THE BREACH LIST’
FORMER Irish Independent journalist Sam Smyth has said the first time he discovered his emails may have been searched was when he read about it in that newspaper yesterday.
The journalist – who is a columnist with the Irish Mail on Sunday – is one of 19 names identified by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) during its investigation into an alleged data breach at Independent News and Media.
The editor-in-chief of INM, Stephen Rae, told employees the company had informed all employees whose emails may have been searched. However, Mr Smyth said neither INM nor the Data Protection Commissioner had informed him that his email may have been the subject of the alleged breach.
Mr Smyth is not the only one to have heard about his link to the alleged breach in the Irish Independent, with former INM director of corporate affairs, Karl Brophy, revealing that other former employees had also not been contacted.
Mr Brophy tweeted that he first learned of his link to the alleged breach from reading about it in the Independent yesterday.
Mr Smyth, speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, said: ‘Neither INM nor the Data Protection Commissioner has told me my data was breached. I am not sure whose obligation it is to contact the people believed to be involved, but neither contacted me to inform me about the situation.
‘If data was breached at INM they should be telling the people involved about it, but the first time it was confirmed for me was this morning when it was in the Irish Independent.
‘I first heard that my communications may have been searched a week ago, after a friend, someone I would consider trustworthy, told me I had appeared on a list of names.’
It is understood the responsibility to inform people who may have had their emails searched does not lie with the Data Protection Commissioner but with the company involved in the alleged data breach.