Serving and former police officers, along with PSNI staff, assisted the information commissioner in his investigation, providing “insights into the anxiety and distress” suffered following the data breach.
One described how the leaking of the details led to a decision to leave a “job that I dreamed of since I was a small child and geared my whole life towards.
“Everything has culminated and become too much for me to the point that I have accepted another job outside of the police,” the ex-officer told the Information Commissioner John Edwards.
“I am essentially taking a pay cut not to mention leaving the job. To say I am devastated is an understatement but I feel I have no choice.”
Another PSNI employee described how the breach has led to his children becoming stressed about their parent’s welfare and fear an attack.
“I have gone to great trouble to ensure that I have remained invisible, with no social media presence, removal from the electoral roll, 192.com, never revealing my job to others and lying about where I work whenever asked,” the individual testified.
“I have trouble sleeping, my children … are all stressed about my welfare, some of them have told me that they have nightmares about me getting attacked.”
A third added: “How has this impacted on me? I don’t sleep at night. I continually get up through the night when I hear a noise outside to check that everything is ok. I have spent over £1000 installing modern CCTV and lighting around my home, because of the exposure.”
Another said the risk to his personal security and the safety of his wife and young children is more significant “due to the fact that I grew up in the area where we are most active”.
“As a result of this many persons involved and linked to paramilitary groups and wider criminal circles in this area would know me or remember me from both school and childhood,” he said.
“I have gone to great lengths to keep my occupation confidential. Only close family and friends previously had knowledge of it. I have a minimal social media footprint.
“I have also spent a considerable amount of effort to make our home private and secure to reduce potential for attacks. This has now been severely compromised and will require further expense to upgrade.”
