Security News > 2021 > December > East Londoners nicked under Computer Misuse Act after NHS vaccine passport app sprouted clump of fake entries
British police have made a series of arrests over the past few months after people with apparent access to NHS databases allegedly sold fake vaccination status entries on the NHS vaccine passport app.
Detective Superintendent Helen Rance said: "The staff at both trusts did the right thing and reported their concerns, which has allowed us to fully investigate the circumstances. I want to reassure the public that no systems were hacked into from outside of the NHS networks and the integrity of the NHS systems remains robust."
The latest arrests follow a Mail on Sunday investigation in October, where it claimed to have unmasked a Briton using a Telegram account to sell fake vaccine passport entries.
Earlier this year the Guardian published a feature highlighting the growing global trade in fake vaccination status passports and apps.
Demand for forged papers could increase after MPs voted to make vaccine passports mandatory this week, with the latest legal regulations being explained by the BBC. The NHS vaccine passport app was greenlighted in May, despite civil liberties campaigners warning it risked creating social divisions between antivax conspiracy theorists, people opposed to vaccine passports themselves and supporters of the scheme.
Those opposed to vaccine passports have highlighted previous government promises that vaccine passports wouldn't be used as a mandatory condition of entry to social venues, soon ditched when it saw the passports would be useful for slowing the spread of harmful COVID-19 variants.