PSNI data breach a gift to dissident republicans in ‘propaganda war’

As soon as the personal and employment information of 10,000 of its officers and staff was mistakenly posted online in an “industrial-scale” data breach last week, the PSNI had to assume dissident republicans had the information. On Monday came confirmation after what appeared to be part of the document – running to three to four A4 pages – was posted on a wall opposite the Sinn Féin office on the Falls Road in west Belfast.

The names of the police officers had been removed, and alongside it was a “threatening message” and a photograph of Sinn Féin MLA and Northern Ireland policing board spokesperson Gerry Kelly.

Not only was it, Mr Kelly told reporters, a “very obvious attempt by dissident republicans to intimidate me” but – “even more sinister” – it was about proving they do indeed have the information. “This is a very public indication that the dissidents do have access to the sensitive information in the data leak document,” he said.

The PSNI initially played down the security implications, assistant chief constable Chris Todd stressing that “from the outset we have been planning for this potential development and that plan is now being put in place”, adding that “additional security and reassurance patrols have already been implemented”, though the chief constable, Simon Byrne, later stressed police were “working round the clock to assess the risk and to take measures to mitigate it”.

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Monday’s revelations came as no surprise. That the document has appeared publicly does not alter or exacerbate the heightened security situation within which the PSNI has been operating since the leak. It does, however, compound the fears of already anxious PSNI officers and civilian staff and their families.

In displaying the document dissident republicans were seeking to prove they do indeed have the information; in so doing, they have effectively marked the PSNI’s card.

What will follow, says Dr Jonny Byrne, senior lecturer in criminology and policing at Ulster University, will be a “drip feed, it could be spray cans on walls, it could be WhatsApp messages, it could be memes, who knows” which will keep those tensions high. In the public mind this “keeps the story relevant and it’s going to keep making it relevant, and it’s going to keep shining a light on police incompetency”.

For those thinking of a career in the PSNI, he says, “it will put doubt in the minds of those who want to join”, add to the concerns of officers and staff who are feeling vulnerable, and heap further pressure on an organisation attempting to deal with a major crisis which appears to be deepening daily.

The data breach has been a propaganda gift for dissident republicans. In the weeks, months and years ahead it will be the gift that keeps on giving. “This is going to run and run for infinity,” says Dr Byrne. “It’s a blank canvas for dissidents in terms of defining the propaganda war… it’s not going to go away.”