THE data breach reported in today's Irish News could potentially represent the biggest security blunder in Northern Ireland's history.
Hundreds of files, containing thousands of pages, with personal details of private citizens including email addresses and passwords, were collected by the PSNI and NCA and handed over to suspected loyalist paramilitaries.
The PSNI said last night there had been "no report of this nature" made as yet, which will raise even more questions about how such sensitive material is stored and protected.
The Irish News has seen files on a pen drive left, it would seem accidentally, in a device removed during a police investigation and later returned to the paramilitary suspects.
This could result in cases being pursued against the PSNI for breach of statutory duty, malfeasance in public office, breach of confidence or even conspiracy to endanger life.
While the scale of the security breach may be new, it is not the first case of its kind.
In 2002 the names and home addresses of almost all 2,000 prison service staff were discovered during police raids linked to the so-called Stormontgate spy ring.
Sinn Féin administrator Denis Donaldson was among three people arrested, with thousands of documents reportedly discovered in his west Belfast home
The arrests led to the collapse of the then Stormont assembly.
While later cleared of any criminal offence, Donaldson was unmasked as an MI5 agent and in 2006 the veteran republican was shot dead at a remote cottage near the Glenties in Co Donegal.
The cost arising from the Stormontgate operation was estimated at around £30 million, which included the relocation of 454 prison staff and improved security for others whose details appeared in the documents.
The IRA raid at Castlereagh police station in east Belfast on St Patrick's Day 2002 was one of the most embarrassing security breaches of the Troubles.
Dozens of highly-sensitive documents were stolen, including a list of Special Branch officers, along with contact details and code names of paramilitary agents and their handlers.
Many police officers had to move house after being warned their personal security had been compromised.
Among the informers who were unmasked was a north Belfast man codename Agent AA, who was alleged to have been a senior member of the IRA unit who bombed the Shankill Road in 1993.
Read more:PSNI gives private citizens' data to suspected loyalist paramilitaries
