Northern Ireland police data leak: man arrested
The self-inflicted data breach exposed details of nearly 10,000 officers and civilian staff members
A man from Lurgan, County Armagh, has been arrested by investigators probing the data breach that occurred at the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) last week.
The PSNI said the 39-year-old was apprehended under suspicion of gathering information potentially beneficial to terrorists.
Detectives are currently interrogating the individual at the Musgrave Serious Crime Suite in Belfast.
"We are working tirelessly to address the risk posed to officers and staff," said detective Chief Superintendent Andy Hill.
"Today's search operation, and subsequent arrest, is just one piece of a large-scale operation.
"We will continue in our efforts to disrupt criminal activity associated with this freedom of information data breach and to keep communities, and our officers and staff who serve them, safe."
This offence appears to be covered by the Terrorism Act 2000, which stipulates that an individual commits a crime if they gather or document information of a nature likely to be beneficial to someone engaging in or planning an act of terrorism.
This also encompasses activities such as viewing document or record containing such information or accessing it through the internet.
Last week, the PSNI issued an apology for an unintended breach in which they inadvertently disclosed the last names, initials, ranks or positions, work sites and departments of nearly 10,000 officers and civilian staff members. This disclosure occurred in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
The original FOI request had sought a detailed breakdown of the ranks and grades of PSNI staff.
In an unintended inclusion, the PSNI not only furnished a table outlining the number of individuals in positions such as constables but also inadvertently appended a spreadsheet containing personal information for over 10,000 individuals.
PSNI attributed the breach to human error.
The Police Federation of Northern Ireland, a body advocating for officers' interest, described the event as a "monumental" breach.
Earlier this week, Simon Byrne, the Chief Constable of PSNI, said he believed that the information had fallen into the possession of dissident republicans, which could potentially be exploited to target individuals working for PSNI.
He said he regretted the "industrial scale breach of data" and conveyed that the police force was offering advice to its officers and staff concerning potential threats and dangers.
The chief constable clarified that no police officers have been moved from their homes and highlighted the creation of a specialised team to swiftly address imminent concerns associated with threats and risks.
Documents sourced from the leak have been displayed on a wall close to a Sinn Féin office in Belfast.
Officers have expressed apprehensions about their safety within Northern Ireland, a region where the police are confronted with a terrorist threat level evaluated as "severe," indicating a high likelihood of an attack.
The FOI data breach was followed by the revelation of a second incident in July involving stolen documents and a laptop.
It is suspected that the spreadsheet on the laptop contained names of approximately 200 active officers and staff. The laptop was reportedly taken from a private vehicle in Newtownabbey, located near Belfast.
This week Cumbria Police also admitted to a data breach, which resulted in the online disclosure of names and salaries for their complete workforce.
The incident impacted a total of 1,304 police officers, 756 staff members, and 52 police community support officers.