About 10,000 Northern Ireland police officers suffer personal data leak "accident"

On August 9, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) announced that it had set up an emergency risk assessment team and updated personal safety recommendations for police officers and staff of this force following the "accident" of data leakage of all staff that occurred a day earlier.

The incident saw personal data such as names, initials, qualifications, work addresses and departments of around 10,000 officers in the Police Force of Northern Ireland made public. The data was mistakenly included in a response to a freedom of information request, leaving the personal details on the requester's website for around 2.5 hours. The PSNI has described the data breach as "extremely serious".

At a press conference on the evening of August 8 (local time), the representative of this force, Chris Todd, apologized for the data leak. In the updated announcement, PSNI stated that in addition to providing instructions to ensure personal safety and security to all police and staff, the force is also ready to immediately support those in special circumstances such as emergency risk or increased risk after the leak. PSNI said it has asked an independent consultant to assess the incident and what needs to be done to avoid similar accidents in the future.

The police leak is considered highly sensitive in the British territory of Northern Ireland, where police officers have been attacked by anti-government groups with guns and bombs. The Police Federation of Northern Ireland, which represents police in the region, said the incident was particularly sensitive because many officers there prefer to keep their work and duties secret.

MI5 has raised the threat level for homegrown terrorism in Northern Ireland to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely, after a police officer was shot and seriously injured while off-duty in February. The attackers are believed to be a small local opposition group.

According to a reporter in the UK, the country's Data Watchdog announced that it had opened an investigation into the above information leak. Specifically, Information Commissioner John Edwards said that the agency needed to assess the level of personal information exposed during the incident. Mr. Edwards affirmed that he would continue to "work with the PSNI to determine the level of risk and measures to minimize the risk of data exposure".

According to VNA

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