The Northern Irish police have been fined £750,000 (€900,000) for accidently leaking the personal data of nearly 10,000 officers last year, causing significant concern within the force.
The document, which detailed the names, ranks, and units of 9,483 officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), was mistakenly posted online in early August 2023 in response to a routine request under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act.
The data breach raised serious fears among Northern Irish police officers. The terror threat level had been elevated a few months earlier in the British province following an assassination attempt on an officer, claimed by the dissident republican group New IRA.
PSNI Chief Simon Byrne stated that dissident republican militants opposed to the province’s status within the UK had accessed these documents, potentially using them to intimidate or target officers.
An investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the body responsible for data protection, concluded that “simple procedures" could have prevented the breach.
The ICO indicated that the error went unnoticed and was not detected beforehand, with the document only being removed from the website more than two hours after its publication.
“It is impossible to imagine the fear and uncertainty this breach – which should never have happened – caused PSNI officers and staff," commented John Edwards, the head of the ICO. "A lack of simple internal administration procedures resulted in the personal details of an entire workforce – many of whom had made great sacrifices to conceal their employment – being exposed."
Following the data breach, many officers resigned, as did PSNI Chief Simon Byrne, amid other scandals within the organisation.
