At the beginning of the year, a data breach took place in the European Parliament, the perpetrators of which gained access to the personal documents of the Parliament’s employees.
A message was sent to the employees on Wednesday about what information has been taken from them.
It’s about a breach of Parliament’s People recruitment system. For example, copies of passports, criminal records, school and work certificates and marriage certificates have ended up in the wrong hands.
The Parliament’s Communications Department confirms that a data breach has occurred. However, the spokespersons of the Parliament do not specify how large a group of people the burglary affects.
“Parliament immediately contacted the European Data Protection Commissioner to inform them of the possible risks related to the data security breach”, states the spokesperson of the Parliament by email.
According to information from Kauppalehti, the data breach also widely affects Finns working in the parliament. At least twenty people have received a message about it. They were told about it by email at the beginning of May and again this week.
The information of people who previously worked as assistants in the parliament has also apparently fallen into the wrong hands.
Based on the e-mails seen by Kauppalehti, copies of, for example, ID cards, place of residence, marital status and completion of military service have been stolen from Finnish employees.
“In accordance with the recommendation of the European Data Protection Commissioner, we have informed the persons who were affected by the data security breach of the categories of documents that were apparently accessed,” the information department of the Parliament says.
The Parliament’s data security experts and the Luxembourg police are currently conducting an analysis to determine all the circumstances surrounding the data breach.
Finnish employees wonder why the data breach was only reported now, even though it already happened at the beginning of the year.
The Finns would also have hoped that the parliament would give better instructions on what kind of protection measures employees must now take.
The Parliament’s email only advises employees to remain vigilant.