Significant PSNI data breach causes deep concerns

Northern Irish Police Officers have been left vulnerable after a major data breach left personal and employment data viewable by the public for between two to three hours. The PSNI apologised after it emerged that approximately 10,000 officers and staff were affected.

The data breach took place when the PSNI responded to a Freedom of Information request seeking the number of officers and staff of all ranks and grades across the organisation. The published response to this request included an embedded table containing the rank and grade data, but also included detailed information that attached the surname, initial, location and departments for all PSNI employees.

This data was potentially viewable for between two to three hours.

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) represents rank and file officers have been inundated with messages from officers. Chairman, Liam Kelly, said these officers are "shocked, dismayed, and basically angry."

Talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Kelly said that in his 29 years in the police service, he has “never experienced something like this”.

Police in the region are already under threat from terrorists, and with the current assessed level of threat ranked at severe, officers have many reasons to be nervous that an attack is highly likely.

As one example, in February of this year, senior detective John Caldwell was seriously injured when he was shot by gunmen at a sports complex in County Tyrone.

Earlier this year, Chief Constable Simon Byrne worryingly revealed that he received briefings almost every day about plots to attack and kill Northern Irish police officers, adding that the ongoing threat from dissident republicans remains a “real worry”.

While Byrne is currently on holiday, he has been informed of the data breach and is being kept updated.

The PSNI has declared the breach as a critical incident.

The organisation apologised to its thousands of serving officers and civilian staff, with PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd calling the breach “unacceptable."

The PSNI committed a 'significant data breach' by revealing the surname and initial, rank or grade and location of employment of all current employees when responding to a Freedom of Information request, a spokesperson for the force has said | Read more: https://t.co/ZginB3a9pC pic.twitter.com/lXeoPb2Ae9

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) August 8, 2023

According to the Assistant Chief Constable, once the data leak was brought to the PSNI’s attention, it was removed “quickly”, confirming that early indications have marked the event as a “simple human error”.

Todd seemed hopeful that there are no immediate security concerns, but confirmed that the situation is being monitored.

“The information was taken down very quickly but, nevertheless, I do appreciate the concern, of course we will seek to find the extent to which that has been viewed,” he said.

“What I would say is that, although the error was our own, once that information was out there if anybody did have access to it I would ask them to delete it straight away.”

The PFNI's Chairman confirmed the officers may consider legal action when the situation is resolved.

“What my members and myself clearly need to hear from the PSNI is the steps that they intend to take to support not only our officers but their families,” Kelly said.

“What you’ve got here is a spectrum of officers. People like myself and the senior management in police, it’s public knowledge that we are police officers, it’s public knowledge where we work, but there are a lot of officers in our service who don’t have that freedom available to them, for all manner of reasons,” he continued.

“There are a number of our officers who work in very sensitive roles. Roles where a veil of secrecy is required because of the nature and the danger associated with that role.”

According to Kelly, legal action is “something we will consider once the investigation concludes” addin that he is not willing to conduct a vote of no confidence in the PSNI chief constable “at this point."