The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has opened an investigation after it published a spreadsheet containing the personal data of its officers and civilian workforce by mistake, a senior officer said Tuesday.
“The data concerned contained the surnames and initials of current employees alongside the location and department within which they work,” Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd said in a statement, adding that the breach “resulted from information included in error in response to a Freedom of Information Request.”
“Although it was made available as a result of our own error, anyone who did access the information before it was taken down is responsible for what they do with it next. It is important that data anyone has accessed is deleted immediately,” the officer said.
The data breach is particularly sensitive given members of the PSNI have been targeted by republican paramilitaries in Northern Ireland in recent months.
In February, a detective was severely injured after being shot by two gunmen. The so-called New Irish Republican Army (New IRA) paramilitary group later claimed responsibility for the attack.
The data in the spreadsheet included information about officers based in the PSNI’s organized crime unit, officers based at ports and airports, and even staff based at MI5 offices in Holywood, County Down, according to the Belfast Telegraph.
The Chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland Liam Kelly said that the breach could do “incalculable damage,” and that members of the PSNI were “shocked, dismayed and justifiably angry” by the data leak.