Suffolk Police Data Breach

On 15^th November, it was reported that Suffolk Police had suffered a major data breach. The breach involved the personal details of sexual assault victims being published on the force’s website and left accessible to the public for three years. Given the extremely sensitive nature of the information and the length of time involved, this breach could have a serious impact on those affected.

Then, on the 15th of August 2023, it was reported that Suffolk Police, along with Norfolk Police Force, suffered another data breach affecting victims of crimes and witnesses. Suffolk and Norfolk’s constabularies said that people’s personal information was included in Freedom of Information responses due to a ‘technical issue’. A total of 1,230 people, including victims of crimes and witnesses, have had their data breached.

If your information has been exposed in the Suffolk Police data breach, you may be entitled to claim compensation. Our expert team has extensive experience in helping those whose data has been mishandled to get the compensation they deserve.

The first Suffolk Police data breach was first reported by the East Anglian Daily Times, which stated that the data was accessible to the general public for a short period of time on the force’s website. However, it was subsequently revealed that the document containing the information was first published in 2019 and only discovered by a member of the public on 7^th November 2022.

Suffolk Police have claimed that “the matter was quickly resolved” once it was brought to their attention, but an investigation has been opened into the incident and remains ongoing. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has also been notified.

Suffolk Rape Crisis, a support organisation for victims of sexual assault in the region, said in a statement that the breach poses “a considerable safety risk” and “could put women at threat of further violence.”

The second Suffolk police data breach in under a year occurred when information including descriptions of offences, including sexual and domestic assaults, thefts and hate crimes, was attached to responses to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for crime statistics issued by the forces between April 2021 and March 2022.

Both Suffolk and Norfolk police forces have described the data as “hidden from anyone opening the files” and they say they have found “nothing to suggest it had been accessed by anyone outside of policing”. They said the data would not have been “immediately obvious”, and anyone who had received the FOI responses would have “needed to know how to access the information”.

This, however, is of little comfort to those whose personal and private data has been breached and does not restore confidence in the Suffolk police force after they previously breached victims’ data by posting their names and addresses on the Suffolk Police website just last year.

In a statement released on the Suffolk Police website, they state that “data impacted was information held on a specific police system and related to crime reports.”

Reportedly the data includes:

• Personally identifiable information on victims, witnesses, and suspects
• Descriptions of offences.

The data exposed is related to a range of offences, including domestic incidents, sexual offences, assaults, thefts and hate crimes.

It is a requirement of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 that if a data breach poses a high risk to the rights and freedoms of those affected, they must be notified without undue delay. Suffolk Police said after the first breach in November 2022, that they are “endeavouring to contact those affected at the earliest opportunity to give support, reassurance and offer an apology.”

As a result, it is likely that those affected by the Suffolk Police data breach will have been contacted directly by the force. However, it is not clear how long this may take, given that the scale of the breach is not fully known at present. If you are concerned you may have been affected and have yet to be notified, you should contact the force directly for more information.

In a statement on the Suffolk Police website addressing the second Suffolk police data breach, they state that they have started to contact individuals affected by this breach. They say this will be done by letter, phone, and, in some cases, face-to-face depending on what information was impacted and the support required. They believe this process will be completed by the end of September.

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) gives you the right to pursue compensation if a data breach has led to material or non-material damages. This includes if you have suffered distress as a result of the breach. If this applies to you, then you may be able to pursue a compensation claim.

If you have been affected by either the Suffolk Police data breach in November 2022 or the Suffolk and Norfolk Police data breach in August 2023, you could be entitled to compensation. If you have been notified that your data was exposed by Suffolk or Norfolk police, get in touch with our team of expert data breach solicitors today. We will be able to advise you on the next steps and take on your claim on your behalf, fighting to get you the compensation you deserve from Suffolk Police or Norfolk Police.