The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is assessing claims by dissident republicans that they are in possession of the personal details of almost 11,000 officers and staff following a major data breach.
PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne confirmed officers are looking into the terror claims, as he publicly apologised for the “serious and grave crisis.”
Speaking to the media on Thursday following an emergency meeting over the scandal, Mr. Byrne said he was “deeply sorry” for the “industrial scale” data leak, but said he would not be reconsidering his position over the critical incident.
The incident happened after staff responded to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request on a public website.
The response, which included the names and employment details of some 10,800 officers and civilian staff, was publicly accessible for up to three hours.
Mr. Byrne said police are now trying to establish how many people accessed and downloaded the information, and if it is being circulated.
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.
Financial Penalty
Police in the region are under threat from terrorists, with the current assessed level of threat at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.In February, senior detective John Caldwell was seriously injured when he was shot by gunmen at a sports complex in County Tyrone.
Earlier this year, Mr. Byrne said he received briefings almost every day about plots to attack and kill his officers, adding that the threat from dissident republicans remained a “real worry.”
Speaking at Thursday afternoon’s press conference, he said police have not yet been able to verify the substance of the dissident claim and the priority “has to be remaining alert to the safety and welfare of both officers and staff as we deal with this unprecedented incident.”
Up to 40 officers at MI5’s headquarters in County Down are reportedly among the names involved in the blunder earlier this week, with moves under way to ensure their protection.
Asked if any of his officers have been redeployed over the incident, Mr. Byrne said that a group has been established to look into staff security.
He said that there have been over 500 referrals to the team so far, which are being assessed.
Mr. Byrne added: “We have not yet redeployed anybody, for example, from their home.
“We are taking steps this afternoon to reassess in some cases, which I won’t go into for operational reasons, whether we need to redeploy some specialist officers away from their usual place of work to a new location.”
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.
He said he would not be stepping down, adding: “In the short term my priority is about the wellbeing of officers and staff as we navigate our way through this crisis.
“But equally I know it’s a question that people will be asking, I don’t think leadership is about walking away, it’s facing up to your responsibilities and I think the organisation needs consistency and calm heads at the moment across the team to lead us through what we accept is an unprecedented crisis.”
Asked if members of the Policing Board mentioned him resigning, he replied, “No, they didn’t.”
The police chief acknowledged his force may now be liable to “financial penalty” for the data breach.
He told the press conference, “We have to make some assumptions that we are liable to financial penalty either from the regulator or from officers making a claim about the breach of their personal data but to try and speculate yet is too early.”
Colossal Breach
Addressing another breach which occurred last month following the theft of documents and a laptop from a police officer’s car, Mr. Byrne said, “We haven’t recovered the stolen property, I know there is speculation about how and why it may have been stolen but we’re in now an investigation which is in its early stages, and we can’t confirm much else.”He said they have means of wiping devices remotely, and laptops are protected by password.
“So we’re quite confident that any information on those devices will not be accessible by a third party,” Mr. Byrne said.
The chief constable faced the media following an emergency meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board over the “colossal” scandal.
Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly, who sits on the board, described the session as “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.”
Mr. Kelly said that 10,800 names were part of the FOI data breach which he described as “colossal.”
Ulster Unionist Party MLA Mike Nesbitt said he is concerned about the capacity of police to give urgent individual risk assessments to such a high number of staff affected.
“It’s clear they’re going to have to triage, and what they’re saying is they’re going to be reactive so that if somebody puts their hand up and says ‘Am I in danger,’ they’ll give them that risk assessment,” he said.
“But I have been contacted over the last couple of days by officers who say, ‘I think I’m at risk but I’m not going anywhere near my line manager because I’ve lost all confidence in the PSNI,’ and that I think is a huge problem.”
Family Fears
The Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents rank-and-file officers, said on Wednesday that they had been inundated with calls from worried officers following the blunder.Mr. Kelly said: “Certainly, in my 29 years of the police, I’ve never experienced something like this, and quite rightly the PSNI have declared this matter as a critical incident and have reported it to the information commissioner’s office.
“What my members and myself clearly need to hear from the PSNI is the steps that they intend to take to support not only our officers but their families.”
Northern Ireland’s police force is significantly different to others in UK owing to the threat posed from dissident republicans who have maimed and killed officers in the past.
The terror groups oppose the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement and remain committed to using violence to try to bring about a united Ireland.
As a result, all PSNI officers carry firearms on duty, and have a choice to carry personal protection weapons while off-duty.
Most of the PSNI’s fleet of response vehicles are armoured with bullet proof windows to protect officers.
The media also takes great care not to publish information, including pictures, that could identify rank-and-file officers.
Owing to the serious security concerns, many officers and civilian staff—particularly those from the nationalist community—keep their occupation a secret, even from family.
In March, MI5 raised the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland from substantial to severe, meaning an attack was highly likely.
