Police Service of Northern Ireland
Disclosed Aug 8, 20233 years ago9,483 affectedSettled
FOI spreadsheet exposed all 9,483 PSNI officers and staff; ICO fine of GBP 750,000
On 8 August 2023 PSNI published a freedom of information response to WhatDoTheyKnow with a hidden worksheet listing surnames, initials, ranks and roles of its entire workforce; it was removed within hours. The ICO fined PSNI GBP 750,000 under its public sector approach, saying the fine would otherwise have been GBP 5.6M.
What is known
| People affected | 9,483 (as reported by the organization) |
|---|---|
| Disclosed | Aug 8, 2023 |
| Discovered | Aug 8, 2023 |
| Attack | Exposed data |
| Data exposed | Names, Employment |
| Sector | Government · GB |
| Status | Settled |
| Lawsuit or fine | GBP 750,000 ICO fine (Oct 2024) (about $980K) |
Sources
| Source | |
|---|---|
| PSNI data breach: Northern Ireland police investigating 'calamitous' leakedition.cnn.com · News | News |
| Poor PSNI procedures culminate in GBP 750k fineico.org.uk · Regulator | Regulator |
| ICO: Police Service of Northern Irelandico.org.uk · Regulator | Regulator |
Notices filed
History of this record
- 2026-09-25 · source_type: press to regulator · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · source_url: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/09/uk/psni-data-breach-gbr-intl/index.html to https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/2024/10/police-service-of-northern-ireland-mpn/ · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · verified_by: empty to research · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · verified: 0 to 1 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · fine_usd: empty to 980000 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · lawsuit: GBP 750,000 ICO fine (September 2024) to GBP 750,000 ICO fine (Oct 2024) · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · attack: insider to misconfiguration · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · records_basis: empty to organization · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · records: empty to 9483 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · discovered: empty to 2023-08-08 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · summary: In response to a freedom of information request, the PSNI accidentally published a spreadsheet listing the surnames, initials, ranks, locations and departments of all its officers and staff, which stayed online for about two hours. Dissiden to On 8 August 2023 PSNI published a freedom of information response to WhatDoTheyKnow with a hidden worksheet listing surnames, initials, ranks and roles of its entire workforce; it was removed within hours. The ICO fined PSNI GBP 750,000 und · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · title: PSNI mistakenly publishes names and roles of all officers and staff online to FOI spreadsheet exposed all 9,483 PSNI officers and staff; ICO fine of GBP 750,000 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · added · seed source
First seen 2026-09-25 (Research), confirmed by Research. Record counts are as reported. Not legal advice.