The accidental publication of personal details of police officers by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has sparked fear among those serving in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

One police officer here spoke yesterday (Wednesday) of their concern about “what could happen if the information falls into the wrong hands”.

News of the major data breach broke on Tuesday evening after the publication of a Freedom of Information request included the surnames and first initial, staff numbers, roles and locations of every police officer and civilian personnel in Northern Ireland.

“It’s worrying as many people haven’t even told their family members they are in the job,” said the officer.

“We get told about personal security constantly and yet someone releases all that information about us all. There could be 9,000 on the list but the people who want it will use it as their Yellow Pages.”

The information could be “highly compromising”, especially for intelligence services within the PSNI, the officer said.

“[This] could and will be a national security issue, it will bleed the police dry. Ultimately it’s the Chief Constable’s job regarding data protection, even though he didn’t obviously do it [leak the information].

“It will be someone of high rank, as we can’t even get details of our colleagues in our teams due to GDPR [restrictions].

“It could definitely put people in danger as has our names – albeit just initial and surnames – and our branches.”

The officer said that some officers may already be seeking advice on compensation because of it.

Addressing the media in Belfast on Tuesday evening, PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd apologised to officers for the “unacceptable” breach.

On Wednesday in a statement, ACC Todd said an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the significant data breach is under way.

Spreadsheet

“I can confirm that, following a routine Freedom of Information (FoI) request, data contained within a spreadsheet was published on a legitimate FoI website.

“This included the surname, initials, rank/grade, role and location of all serving officers and staff. This data was available to view on the website for a period of up to three hours before it was removed.

“As a service, we are acutely aware of the seriousness of this breach and have declared it to be a critical incident. We fully understand the very real concerns being felt by our colleagues and their families and we are working hard to do everything we can to mitigate any risk.

“We are working with our security partners and organisations to investigate this incident.

“We have issued updated personal security advice to all of our officers and staff and have established an emergency threat assessment group that will look at the welfare concerns of our people.

“As well as general advice on safety and security, this multi-disciplinary group will focus on immediate support to those with specific circumstances which they believe place them or their families at immediate risk or increased threat of harm.

“We have also sought the assistance of an independent advisor to conduct an end-to-end review of our processes in order to understand what happened, how it happened and what we can do immediately to prevent such a breach happening in the future.

“This is an extremely serious situation. The Chief Constable is cutting his family holiday short and returning to Northern Ireland to attend tomorrow’s special sitting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board

“We will continue to keep the Information Commissioner’s Office updated as the investigation continues.”

The Chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, Liam Kelly, called for an “urgent inquiry”.

Mr. Kelly said: “This is a breach of monumental proportions. Even if it was done accidentally, it still represents a data and security breach that should never have happened.

“Rigorous safeguards ought to have been in place to protect this valuable information which, if in the wrong hands, could do incalculable damage.

“The men and women I represent are appalled by this breach. They are shocked, dismayed and justifiably angry. Like me, they are demanding action to address this unprecedented disclosure of sensitive information.

‘Fortunate’

“We have many colleagues who do everything possible to protect their police roles. We’re fortunate that the PSNI spreadsheet didn’t contain officer and staff home addresses, otherwise we would be facing a potentially calamitous situation.”

An emergency meeting of the Policing Board was held today, Thursday.