Headline: Key knew of systemic failure for months
John Key sat on a damning review of the security of public sector IT systems for months, all the while downplaying the seriousness of privacy breaches and misleading New Zealanders, Labour Leader David Shearer says.
“The Prime Minister received the report – that he commissioned – in December 2012. It spells out systemic failure across numerous government agencies, noting a lack of basic security policies, processes and protections.
“Yet when I questioned Mr Key in the House three months later he flatly denied there was a systemic failure across government, arguing that privacy breaches were inevitable and that ‘from time to time people make mistakes’.
“That’s deliberately misleading. He had the information and he chose to tell the House and New Zealanders – whose private information is held by these agencies – the opposite of what he knew to be true.
“The review found 73 per cent of government departments did not have formal security standards and procedures in place, while 87 per cent didn’t have formal security certification and accreditation process to assess their systems.
“That is a systemic failure by anyone’s standards, and once again demonstrates a major lack of oversight by those at the top.”
—
