By Tony O’Reilly-
There is widespread panic among police officers in Northern Ireland after dissident republicans claim to be in possession of information about police officers circulating on WhatsApp following a data blunder, Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable Simon Byrne has said.
It follows the declaration of a “critical incident” by the PSNI earlier this week following the release of information including the surnames, initials, ranks or grades, work locations and departments of all its staff as part of a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.
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Hundreds of police officers have already voiced fears for their safety following the data breach which affected some 10,000 Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers and staff.
Speaking following an emergency meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board on Thursday, Mr Byrne told a press conference he was “deeply sorry” about an “industrial scale breach of data” that has gone into the public domain..
He was speaking after taking questions at a meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
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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
He added: “We are now aware that dissident republicans claim to be in possession of some of this information circulating on WhatsApp.
“As we speak, we are advising officers and staff about how to deal with that and any further risk that they may face.”
Asked to elaborate, Mr Byrne said his comment about dissident republicans was “a claim” and his force had not yet been able to verify it.
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 on Wednesday.
Police in Northern Ireland are under a threat from terrorists assessed as severe.
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.
It is being considered, however, whether some officers need to be moved from their usual places of work.
Others may have unusual surnames that could lead to early identification, Mr Byrne said.
Certain officers have been advised to come off social media.
The force is working “flat out” to get answers to the “questions that are on everybody’s lips” Mr Byrne said.
When asked about his position, Mr Byrne said there had been a “breach of trust” but leadership was not about “walking away”.
He added: “It’s facing up to your responsibilities and the organization needs consistency and calm heads at the moment to lead us through what we accept is an unprecedented crisis.”
Mr Byrne said that in future, “nothing else will be issued on a spread sheet” and will be in PGF format, making it more difficult to link it to other formats.
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