PSNI arrests 39-year-old following a significant breach that leaked sensitive police records

Detectives at the Police Service of Northern Ireland have arrested a man in connection with an investigation into a significant data breach affecting the police force.

Earlier this month, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) suffered a significant data breach that compromised the sensitive personal information of police officers and civilian personnel employed by the force.

The breach was officially confirmed by PSNI on August 8 when a spreadsheet containing the personal data of police officers was released accidentally in response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. 

 

The leaked data included current employees’ surnames and initials, ranks, departments, and locations. This sensitive information encompassed even the most delicate areas of the police service, including surveillance and intelligence.

The released data also included information about individuals currently on career breaks, potentially putting them at risk. The information was inadvertently published on the FoI website "What Do They Know" around 2:30 pm BST on August 8 following a request from a public member seeking details about the distribution of officers across different ranks and staff grades.

An investigation initiated by PSNI led to the arrest of a 39-year-old man on Wednesday on suspicion of collecting information that could be useful to terrorists. PSNI said the offense falls under the Terrorism Act, 2000, which states that “a person commits an offence if he collects or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”

Following a search operation conducted by the agency, the man was arrested in Lurgan, County Armagh, and has been held for questioning by detectives at Musgrave Serious Crime Suite.

“Detectives investigating criminality linked to last week’s freedom of information data breach, have carried out a search in Lurgan today, Wednesday 16 August, and made an arrest,” PSNI said.

In a statement shared with the media, Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Hill said, “We are working tirelessly to address the risk posed to officers and staff. 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,” he added.

The accidental exposure took the form of a large Excel spreadsheet containing a staggering 10,799 lines of confidential data. The spreadsheet remained accessible for approximately two and a half hours before being removed from the website at the request of PSNI. While the document was taken down rather quickly, it was reportedly accessed 3,872 times within that time period.