“Amateur”, “negligent”, possibly even punishable. Zurich justice director Jacqueline Fehr (59) opted for clear words on Tuesday about the data scandal in her authority. “It cannot be justified under any title how data carriers from the Department of Justice and Home Affairs would have been thrown away in the nineties,” said the SP government councilor at a media conference.
Blick announced last week that hard drives with unencrypted, highly sensitive data from the public prosecutor’s office and the police had ended up with a convicted bartender from the Zurich environment due to improper disposal. On Tuesday, the director of justice took a position on this for the first time – and published the investigation report, which had previously been kept secret.
Fehr admits mistakes
It is not difficult to criticize something that you have nothing to do with yourself. Fehr only joined the Justice Department in 2015 and the data breach lasted until 2012. But the SP government councilor also bears responsibility for handling the scandal. The authority had been aware of the case since 2020 and had an administrative investigation carried out in parallel with the criminal proceedings. But the public knew nothing about this.
In her first public statement on the matter, Fehr now said that in hindsight it was a mistake not to have even sent the final report of the administrative inquiry to the audit committee of the cantonal council.
The representation does not quite correspond to the truth
As for the silence of the public, the government councilor has now shifted responsibility to the canton’s data protection officer. They advised not to inquire. “Should we have published the report against the advice of data protection officers?” she asked rhetorically.
The Zurich Ministry of Justice kept the data scandal under lock and key for more than a year and a half. Now that it has come to light, she feels compelled to create transparency and publishes the final report of the administrative investigation carried out by a company specializing in IT law.
This also looks at the status of data protection in 2021. The report concludes that IT security “has been guaranteed for years”, according to the Justice Department. When you read the 39-page document, you wonder how she came up with that.
“In our opinion, concrete action instructions for the attention of employees are missing in many areas,” the report said. There is also criticism that the safety checks in the management are not carried out uniformly and systematically.
The research report contains 13 recommendations. Four take precedence because there is a “high probability that the law will be broken,” said researcher Maria Winkler. As Alderman Jacqueline Fehr (59) explained, the implementation of the recommendations is in full swing.
The Zurich Ministry of Justice kept the data scandal under lock and key for more than a year and a half. Now that it has come to light, she feels compelled to create transparency and publishes the final report of the administrative investigation carried out by a company specializing in IT law.
This also looks at the status of data protection in 2021. The report concludes that IT security “has been guaranteed for years”, according to the Justice Department. When you read the 39-page document, you wonder how she came up with that.
“In our opinion, concrete action instructions for the attention of employees are missing in many areas,” the report said. There is also criticism that the safety checks in the management are not carried out uniformly and systematically.
The research report contains 13 recommendations. Four take precedence because there is a “high probability that the law will be broken,” said researcher Maria Winkler. As government councilor Jacqueline Fehr (59) explained, the implementation of the recommendations is in full swing.
The problem is that Fehr’s story doesn’t match the truth.
“In my report I only commented on the aspect of informing the people concerned. I have not commented on the publication of the final report of the administrative inquiry,” said the data protection officer Dominika Blonski when asked by Blick. That is not in their field.
Prosecutor extends prosecution
But Fehr is not only criticized in the field of communication. As if the debacle wasn’t big enough, she also confirmed on Tuesday that important documents related to the events of 2019 had been destroyed without being digitized beforehand. The whole thing was “very unfortunate”. “We don’t know if the files would have contributed to our indictment or exoneration.”
Blick reported on the data destruction on Monday. On the same day, the public prosecutor’s office decided to expand the ongoing investigation. The data provision by the authorities is now being investigated in more detail – including that from 2019. Officials may have committed a criminal offense.
It is not clear why the Public Prosecution Service is only now investigating. The fact is that the 2019 takedown campaign has been known to the authorities since November 2020.