Dissident republicans claim to be in possession of information about police officers circulating on WhatsApp following a data blunder, PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne has said.
Hundreds of police officers have voiced fears for their safety following the data breach which affected some 10,000 PSNI officers and staff.
Speaking following an emergency meeting of the Policing Board today, Mr Byrne said he was “deeply sorry” about an “industrial scale breach of data”.
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He said: “An early worst case scenario that we have been dealing with is that third parties would attempt to get this data to intimidate, corrupt or indeed cause harm to our officers and staff.
“We are now aware that dissident republicans claim to be in possession of some of this information circulating on WhatsApp, and as we speak we are advising officers and staff about how to deal with that and any further risk that they face.”
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He added the force had not yet been able to verify the substance of the claim.
Up to 40 officers at MI5’s headquarters in Co Down are reportedly among the names involved in the blunder earlier this week, with moves under way to ensure their protection.
The incident happened when the PSNI responded to a Freedom of Information request seeking the number of officers and staff of all ranks and grades across the organisation.
In the published response to this request a table was embedded which contained the rank and grade data, but also included detailed information that attached the surname, initial, location and departments for all PSNI employees.
Details of another breach following the theft of documents and a laptop from a car in Newtownabbey in July emerged yesterday.
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Mr Byrne cut short a family holiday to return to Belfast to be questioned by politicians at the Policing Board meeting, which was held in private.
PSNI data breach a 'very grave matter'
Following the meeting, Northern Ireland Policing Board chair Deirdre Toner described the police data breach as a “very grave matter”.
She said it will remain the focal point for board meetings with the Police Service of Northern Ireland “for many months to come until we are reassured that the recommendations from the review are fully implemented”.
Speaking after the board questioned Chief Constable Simon Byrne for several hours in a private session, Ms Toner said the personal impact of the data breach on 10,000 police officers and staff “cannot be overstated”.
“Their safety and welfare, and the steps being taken by PSNI to communicate with staff and address their concerns were at the forefront of our discussions with the Chief Constable and his senior team at the extraordinary board meeting that was held this morning,” she said.
“This breach has been identified as due to human error, with very serious consequences. Board members discussed the immediate actions PSNI are taking to support officers and staff.
“Members have impressed upon the senior team the need to ensure every necessary step will be taken to reassure and protect affected staff, and to put the safeguards in place that will ensure this cannot happen again.”
Dissident republicans
UUP MLA Mike Nesbitt said he hopes the dissident republican claim to have information from the police data breach is a false claim.
“Clearly it is in the interests of dissident republicans to make the claim because it’s in their interests to spread maximum panic, but if they do have it then the police are, I would suggest, going to be well stretched to protect that number of people,” he said.
Mr Nesbitt said Chief Constable Simon Byrne’s position was not discussed at the meeting of the Policing Board.
“I’m not going to give a kneejerk reaction to it, and my focus is on the security and the safety of the men and women of the police service and of the service team, and I think Simon is genuine about doing all he can to deal with their safety and security,” he said.
Police officers' welfare
Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly, who sits on the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said the session with Chief Constable Simon Byrne had been “instructive and very robust”.
“There were many questions asked, we got answers to some of them,” he said.
“The issue around whether it is human error or a systems error was answered at the end. I think while human error was involved, there was also a problem with the system. I understand they changed part of the system which would resolve that problem at this moment.
“We also talked about the welfare of police officers.
“This is 10,800 names, which is huge, it’s colossal, and there is an issue of taking care of those people.”
Mr Kelly said the big question is making sure such a data breach does not happen again.
