A MAN has been arrested by detectives investigating criminality linked to last week's major PSNI data breach, which saw details of all serving officers and staff published online.
The man was arrested following a search in Lurgan today, just over a week after the data was published on a legitimate Freedom of Information (FoI) website.
The 39-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of collection of information likely to be useful to terrorists and is being questioned by detectives at Musgrave Serious Crime Suite.
"We are working tirelessly to address the risk posed to officers and staff," said Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Hill.
"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."
The document was released following a legitimate FoI request and was available to view online for three hours last Tuesday.
However, it inadvertently included the surname, initials, rank/grade, role and location of all serving officers and staff.
Speaking after an emergency meeting of the Policing Board last Thursday, Chief Constable Simon Byrne said he had considered the possibility that the data had been obtained by others.
"An early worst-case scenario which we considered following the data breach was that third parties might attempt to get this data to intimidate, corrupt or harm officers or staff," Mr Byrne said.
