Security News > 2023 > August > You're not seeing double – yet another UK copshop is confessing to a data leak

Norfolk and Suffolk police have stepped forward to admit that a "Technical issue" resulted in raw data pertaining to crime reports accidentally being included in Freedom of Information responses.

"A technical issue has led to some raw data belonging to the constabularies being included within the files produced in response to the FoI requests in question. The data was hidden from anyone opening the files, but it should not have been included."

"The data impacted was information held on a specific police system and related to crime reports. The data includes personal identifiable information on victims, witnesses, and suspects, as well as descriptions of offences. It related to a range of offences, including domestic incidents, sexual offences, assaults, thefts, and hate crime."

The constabularies say they have completed an analysis of the incidents, and have started to tell affected individuals about the impact to their personal data.

Norfolk and Suffolk police reckon that data has not been accessed by anyone outside of policing, nevertheless the UK's data watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office, was notified of the leak.

"The potential impact of a breach like this reminds us that data protection is about people. It's too soon to say what our investigation will find, but this breach - and all breaches - highlight just how important it is to have robust measures in place to protect personal information, especially when that data is so sensitive."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/08/15/norfolk_and_suffolk_police_data_breach/