Suffolk Police - Serious Data Breach *title edited by MNHQ at request of OP*

[Cailleachian]

"Suffolk Police has accidentally published the names and addresses of victims of sexual assault on its website. The data breach is believed to have affected “hundreds” of victims. Suffolk Police is currently investigating why this serious privacy violation occurred. The legal, police and criminal justice sector is a lucrative target for hackers. But, in most cases, such data breaches occur because of simple human errors and poor data security processes.

The data breached by Suffolk Police is believed to include the following information:

• The names, addresses, and dates of birth of victims
• Details of the alleged sexual offences committed."

from www.kellerpostman-databreach.co.uk/suffolk-police-publish-the-names-and-addresses-of-sexual-assault-victims-in-serious-data-breach/?fbclid=IwAR1pV534MYgRK_k0BajvradbknoiIDRGn1kzjQ6POQFhEODIOb5YhPQWP-Y

The police have just increased the danger level for all victims of sexual assault, not to mention the sheer invasion of privacy by having their details on a public website.

@Cailleachian can you report your post as the heading says 'Sussex' and it should read 'Suffolk' according to the article. MN can change it.

Simple human error…..hmmm.

In The Guardian: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/22/suffolk-police-apologise-for-publishing-details-of-victims-of-sexual-offences

Meant to add this worrying quote:

Suffolk constabulary said the data breach was discovered by a member of the public on the evening of 7 November, but the document “was first published in 2019”.

The data was contained in a spreadsheet on the force’s website, and related to “inquiries into sexual offences and offences that occurred in schools which were reported between April 1 2015 and March 31 2019”.

Shit! That was unbelievably careless.

1. Utter stupidity, 2) cock-up, or 3) don't give a fuck about victims? Or all three? It;s fucking atrocious, and heads should roll on such a serious breach.

I know the person that discovered the breach ! And he feels that the police are trying to downplay the seriousness of this. They did not remove the information quickly ! He called up the police as soon as he found out and asked to speak to the duty inspector as it was urgent but they they refused and made him wait in the queue. They say the information was hard to access but he was able to find it by a quick Google search when looking for something else.

Oh dear. I feel like victims are treated like such nuisances by the police.

Oh dear. I feel like victims are treated like such nuisances by the police.

Well, only some victims. There are other victims who have the police at their beck and call and willing to quickly chase up mean comments on Twitter, or vague, amorphous "hate crime" accusations.

This breach is absolutely atrocious.

Dreadful!

PS you might want to correct the title - I don't think this has anything to do with Sussex.

Report to the Information Commissioner about the tardy response, that should put a rocket up their @#*&. Speak to your MP

I second this, it is an awful breach and they need to face the consequences

It was on Suffolk police website? I can't imagine why victims' demograpic details would ever need to be on a website. And, as @TheBiologyStupid tells us, it seems to have been about sexual assaults in schools

How much worse will this get?

No wonder the police are downplaying it.

Does anyone else think this seems like a very specific breach? Almost like it wasn’t human error at all.

So under UK GDPR Article 82 would give them a right to request compensation, law enforcement data is processed under the DPA 2018 though, I wonder if they still have the right to use Article 82.

What a way to deter people from going to the police to report. I was reading an article about the rise of assaults in the workplace and I was thinking to myself there's been no rise in it only a rise in reporting.

4. on purpose?

Sorry folks for mixing up Sussex and Suffolk! My bad.