Ireland's Employment Permits Portal taken offline after unauthorised activity; names, emails and roles may be exposed
Employment Permits Online portal (Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Ireland)
Ireland's Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment said on Oct 29 2026 that it found suspicious unauthorised activity on the Employment Permits Portal, and a security vulnerability during its first checks. It took the portal offline, removed access from suspected compromised administrator accounts and notified the Data Protection Commission. Information potentially exposed is basic account data: names, email addresses and account roles (employer, agent or employee); the department says broader and more sensitive personal data does not appear to be affected. The portal is expected back on Tuesday Nov 3, and permit processing continues in the meantime.
Why this severity: Government portal offline after confirmed unauthorised activity; potentially exposed data limited to names, emails and account roles so far; number of affected users not disclosed
- Started
- Oct 29, 2026
Affected
Not published yet
Fixed in
No fixed release yet
Timeline2
The department says it identified suspicious unauthorised activity on the Employment Permits Portal and a security vulnerability, suspends registrations and takes the portal offline, removes access from suspected compromised administrator accounts, adds firewall restrictions and notifies the Data Protection Commission. It expects the portal to reopen on Nov 3.
The Data Protection Commission confirms it received a breach notification and is assessing it; the department says the incident is not linked to the recent PHP vulnerabilities.
Advisories1
News & write-ups2
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