Man arrested after Northern Ireland police data leak | Northern Ireland

Detectives investigating possible criminality linked to a major Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) data leak of officers’ details have arrested a man.

The 39-year-old was arrested on suspicion of collection of information likely to be useful to terrorists after a search in Lurgan, County Armagh, and is being questioned by detectives at Musgrave serious crime suite in Belfast.

DCS Andy Hill said: “We are working tirelessly to address the risk posed to officers and staff. Today’s search operation, and subsequent arrest, is just one piece of a large-scale operation. We will continue in our efforts to disrupt criminal activity associated with this freedom of information data breach and to keep communities, and our officers and staff who serve them, safe.”

Last week the PSNI revealed a document had mistakenly been shared online for about three hours, in response to a freedom of information request, which included the names of about 10,000 officers and civilian staff members.

Details released included the surname and first initial of every employee, their rank or grade, where they are based and the unit they work in.

Earlier this week, the PSNI chief constable, Simon Byrne, said he believed the information was in the hands of dissident republicans. Documents from the leak have been posted on a wall near a Sinn Féin office in Belfast.

The assistant chief constable Chris Todd has apologised to officers over the data breach.

Officers have expressed concern for their safety in Northern Ireland, where police face a terrorist threat level assessed as “severe”, meaning an attack is highly likely.

A threat management assessment group has been set up by the PSNI for those concerned about the risks. It had 1,200 referrals by Friday evening.

Last weekend it emerged that about 200 police officers and staff were not informed for almost a month about the theft of devices and documents with data potentially affecting them, the PSNI said.

A police-issued laptop, radio and documents were stolen on 6 July from a car parked in Newtownabbey that is understood to belong to a superintendent.

Todd said in a statement last Saturday it was believed the laptop and radio were deactivated “shortly afterwards”.

“We are confident no data has been lost from these devices and they are of no use to any third party,” he added.