Northern Ireland

Pornography on court computer system

HACKERS have been blamed for an embarrassing security breach at a Donegal courthouse which led to pornographic images being displayed on the building’s computer system.

The incident happened on Tuesday during a busy sitting of the Circuit Court in Letterkenny.

As part of the recently opened multi-million euro courthouse, iPads are provided to the public to allow them to leave comments on building maintenance.

The service is supposed to be for use solely within the court premises but earlier this week someone managed to gain entry to the system and use it to access an internet porn site.

It is not clear how many members of the public were exposed to the images but BAM, the company that manages Letterkenny courthouse, admitted that they had been “viewed for a short period”.

BAM officials immediately launched an investigation into the breach and the company said yesterday it had since enhanced its security measures.

“BAM is aware of an incident with its dedicated facilities management iPad service at Letterkenny Court where the iPad’s protection was breached and resulted in inappropriate material being viewed for a short period,” a company spokesperson said.

“The service is of a closed circuit nature intended for members of the public to provide feedback in relation to building maintenance.

“While the iPad service has a number of specialist IT security protections in place, these appear to have been compromised.

“BAM launched an immediate investigation into the issue and additional protections have been put in place to prevent a recurrence,” it added.

The Courts Service of Ireland, which looks after the judicial side of court business, has distanced itself from the gaffe but admits that “unwelcome” material did make its way on to the Letterkenny building’s computer network.