PSNI data breach: Two men released after Terrorism Act arrests

Two men have been released after being arrested by detectives investigating a major data breach by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

The data was accidentally shared in August and included the surname and initials of 10,000 PSNI employees.

The men, aged 21 and 22, were arrested under the Terrorism Act after a search in Portadown, County Armagh, on Saturday.

Police said they had now been released on bail.

In total four arrests have been made in relation to the data breach.

On 16 August, a 39-year-old was arrested on suspicion of collection of information likely to be useful to terrorists. He was later released on bail.

A 50-year-old man was arrested on 18 August and was subsequently charged with terrorism offences.

He appeared in court on 21 August and was remanded in custody for four weeks.

Dt Ch Insp Avine Kelly said the PSNI was working to establish who possessed information related to the data breach.

"We will take action to ensure that any criminality identified is dealt with robustly to keep communities, and our officers and staff who serve them, safe."

On 8 August, employees' details were mistakenly published online after being released by the PSNI in response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

They were taken down from a website at the PSNI's direction a short time later.

Police have confirmed the list is in the hands of dissident republicans, amongst others.

The Policing Board has said an independent-led review will be carried out into the breach.

It was one of three separate PSNI data breach incidents being examined by police.

On 6 July, in an unrelated incident, a police-issue laptop and radio, as well as a document containing the names of more than 200 staff, were stolen from a private vehicle in Newtownabbey, County Antrim.

In another incident, on Thursday 17 August, a PSNI laptop and a police officer's notebook fell from the roof of a moving car on the M2 in Belfast.