Farrell moves to ease data fears of local Gaels

The chairman of Westmeath GAA is “taking very seriously” the news that personal details belonging to some 10,000 local GAA members have been accessed illegally.Tom Farrell confirmed that an investigation is underway after the GAA's 500,000-strong member database was subject to a security breach.Belfast-based Servasport Ltd. - the company which maintains the database - last week issued an apology to the GAA and its members, and Croke Park confirmed that an investigation is being carried out by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).“The situation is being handled by the police, and hopefully everything will be okay,” said Mr. Farrell, adding that the incident “shows the risks” associated with digital databases.“The database is our new system for registration of all members nationally, and such details have to be stored somewhere. It's like the Government needing to store people's details and PPS numbers for their records, so it's no different than any database.”Of the 501,786 members included in the data bank, 167,157 of them are underage, and details included are 288,511 dates of birth, 107,212 mobile phone numbers, 63,695 landline numbers and 30,171 e-mail addresses.Officials of Westmeath clubs are being kept up to date about the situation.