Government advised to establish central register of ‘important’ entities to improve ‘cyber resilience’

The Government has been advised to establish a central register of all essential and important entities in the State as part of a strategy to strengthen Ireland’s cyber resilience.

This comes as part of three key recommendations made by a report led by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) outlined the cyber security risks faced by Ireland and the measures required to strengthen the country’s cyber resilience.

The report also recommended that the State strengthen legislative provisions to ensure that the operators of essential and important services, service providers, and technology vendors embed appropriate cyber security measures in their products and services from the outset.

It further recommended the State develop a framework to manage strategic supply chain dependency risks for critical and sensitive services.

Included in the report is an analysis of the risk that Ireland faces from a range of threats such as espionage and destructive cyberattacks posed by nation state actors, criminal organisations and hacktivist groups.

The report also highlights the importance of supply chain security in digital technologies, which has become a key focal point of cyber risk in recent years.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin asked the Government to note the completion of the assessment on behalf of Minister Eamon Ryan in the Dáil on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee briefed Government on the Annual Report of the Committee Appointed to Monitor the Effectiveness of the Garda Diversion Programme for 2021, on behalf of Minister of State James Browne.

The 2021 report said that the number of children referred on to the programme in 2021 was 8,514, an increase of 4 per cent on 2020. Of the children referred in 2021, 78 per cent were male and 22 per cent were female.

The report also said that 8,888 children received formal or informal cautions in 2021, an increase of 51 per cent on 2020.

The Garda Diversion Programme provides a system of formal and informal Garda cautions for young offenders. All children aged between 12 and 18 who commit an offence must be considered for admission to the Programme.

The proportion of children who were considered unsuitable for inclusion in the diversion programme in the five years from 2017-2021 was 15 per cent. Cases are generally deemed unsuitable due to the seriousness of the offence or the persistence of offending by the child in question.

The Government’s Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 includes an objective to replace the existing Monitoring Committee with a more robust evidence-based system of reporting on the whole Youth Justice System.