Dissident republicans claim to be in possession of information about potentially thousands of Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers and staff following an unprecedented data leak.
PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne confirmed the development on Thursday and said he was “deeply sorry” for the “industrial-scale” data breach.
Addressing media at the Northern Ireland Policing Board headquarters in Belfast on Thursday, Mr Byrne said no officers had been rehoused since the crisis emerged on Tuesday when details of 10,000 serving officers and civilian employees mistakenly appeared online.
More than 500 staff had now raised concerns about their safety and an assessment was under way about the possible redeployment of some officers, he added.
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The chief constable cut short his holiday to attend an emergency policing board meeting along with senior PSNI colleagues.
At a press conference following the lengthy private session with board members – the body which holds the PSNI to account – he said the force had not yet been able to verify the substance of dissident republicans’ claim regarding their access to the leaked information.
“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,” Mr Byrne said.
“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.
“Our priority is remaining alert to the safety and welfare of both officers and staff as we deal with this unprecedented incident.”
Details of a second breach involving the theft of a police-issue laptop from a car last month were confirmed by police on Wednesday.
It emerged on Thursday that the laptop, which was stolen in Newtownabbey on July 6th, has still not been recovered. Documents and a spreadsheet identifying more than 200 staffers were also taken.
It took three weeks for the theft to be reported to senior PSNI staff and the lapse was now being investigated, Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd, who is the PSNI’s Senior Information Risk Owner, told reporters.
Mr Byrne said that given the scale of the breaches, the PSNI leadership had set up a group to look at “real-time concerns about threat and risk”.
“We’ve had over 500 referrals to that service, which is real-time triaging the level of risk that we perceive officers to be facing and then we’re offering them that advice,” he told media.
“We have not yet redeployed anybody, for example, from their home. We’re 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 the usual place of work to a new location.”
Asked whether he believed his position was tenable, the chief constable insisted he would not be stepping down. He added that policing board members had not asked him to resign.
“Leadership is not about walking away; it’s facing up to responsibility,” he said. “We need consistency and calm heads to lead us through an unprecedented crisis.”
Compensation claims by affected officers and PSNI data protection breach fines were likely, he added. Sources have indicated that compensation payouts could potentially run into tens of millions of pounds.
“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 to speculate yet is too early.”
Speaking after the meeting, Ulster Unionist MLA Mike Nesbitt, who sits on the policing board, said he hoped the dissident republican claim was false. “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.
Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly, who also sits on the policing board, said the crisis would undoubtedly impact on those considering a career in policing, particularly from the nationalist community.
“If you’re going to make a life-changing career decision like this, you will weigh it up. It’s very hard to quantify the impact but it adds another layer for those from a nationalist and republican background.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the protection of police North and South, members of both the PSNI and An Garda Síochána, was of critical importance.
He has also said the Irish Government was willing to offer any help that was asked by the Northern Ireland authorities in its response to the information leak.
He added that one reassuring factor was that no home addresses or phone numbers were included in the data that was inadvertently leaked.
“If there’s any request for help, we’ll certainly consider it and certainly consider it favourably. As things stand that hasn’t been made, or at least to my knowledge, it hasn’t been made.
“Obviously, I share the concerns that people have in terms of protecting our policemen, Garda, PSNI members, North and South. It is of crucial importance.
“The breach is serious. What is reassuring is there were no home addresses released, no phone numbers, but it was still a serious breach nonetheless.”
