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Dublin: 6 °C Thursday 5 December, 2024
Phil Hogan, website security guy. Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland

Would you trust this man to tell you a website is secure?

Phil Hogan told the public not to worry about security on the household charge website – but his own site is so dangerous that most browsers won’t even open it.

IT’S ALWAYS WORTH making sure your own house is in order before you give advice to a friend. Or, in this case, the entire country.

Earlier today, Phil Hogan, the Minister for the Environment, assured the public not to worry about security on the household charge website.

Anyone paying the new charge over the website should be reassured that the site is “fully secure,” said Hogan.

However, embarrassingly, the Minister’s own website isn’t secure enough to be opened on the two most-popular internet browsers.

Visitors who attempt to access philhogan.ie using Chrome or Firefox are met with a warning that the site contains malware – malicious software – and could cause damage to a computer if it’s opened. Oops.

Visitors who attempt to access philhogan.ie using Chrome are met with a warning which says: “Something’s Not Right Here!”.

The site can however be opened in Internet Explorer.

Phil Hogan represents Carlow Kilkenny in the Dáil and was first elected as a TD in 1989 according to the Fine Gael website (which can be accessed from any browser).

(The malware message that shows up when users try to access philhogan.ie using Chrome)

Minister for the Environment insists household charge site is “fully secure” >

Data Protection Commissioner ‘concerned’ over household charge collection >

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