Staff Data Breach: British Police Could Be Fined £750k

Uploaded on 2024-05-24 in NEWS-Cybersecurity News, GOVERNMENT-Law Enforcement, FREE TO VIEW, TECHNOLOGY--Hackers

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) could be fined £750,000 for a major data breach last year after mistakenly disclosing the names of all 9,483 serving officers and staff in a spreadsheet published online. It was subsequently confirmed that the information was in the hands of potentially deadly dissident Republicans.

While the PSNI has said it cannot afford such a fine, however if ir were not a public body, the fine would have been in the millions. The British data regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), has announced that the proposed fine could be imposed on the PSNI "for failing to protect the personal information of its entire workforce".

The breach happened when police answered a Freedom of Information request and information was published online about the PSNI's 9,483 policing and civilian employees and the personal information included the surname, initials, rank, and role of all serving PSNI officers and staff.

In provisional findings announced recently, UK Information Commissioner John Edwards said: “The sensitivities in Northern Ireland and the unprecedented nature of this breach created a perfect storm of risk and harm, and show how damaging poor data security can be." He added: “Throughout our investigation, we heard many harrowing stories about the impact this avoidable error has had on people’s lives, from having to move house, to cutting themselves off from family members and completely altering their daily routines because of the tangible fear of threat to life."

The proposed fine is provisional to allow the PSNI to make representations before a final decision.Mr Edwards also revealed that the potential fine could have been £5.6m, but he used discretion to significantly reduce the amount to ensure public money is not diverted from where it is most needed.

The ICO has issued the PSNI with a preliminary enforcement notice requiring the police service to improve the security of personal information when responding to Freedom of Information requests.

The PSNI Chief Constable, Jon Boutcher, has previously announced that every PSNI officer and staff member would be offered a one-off payment of £500 to help with home security measures following the data breach. The incident contributed to the resignation of the previous Chief Constable who has now left the force.

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