Norfolk and Suffolk sexual abuse charity says police data breach must never happen again
Norfolk and Suffolk police announced yesterday that the details of more than a thousand people, including victims, were released during a data breach
The head of a charity supporting victims of sexual abuse across Norfolk and Suffolk says people should still report crimes and come forward for help.
It's after the counties' police forces announced yesterday that the details of more than a thousand people, including victims, were released during a data breach.
Patsy Johnson Cisse is the managing director of Brave Future:
"It's about working together to ensure something like this doesn't happen again.
"We need to make sure that if there are victims of sexual abuse they do come forwards in the future and do report the crimes.
"We need to support the victims, so we don't want this breach to have a negative effect on them coming forwards
"We appreciate how worrying this all this for victims and those who might be re-triggered by the breach."
Clive Evans, Chief Executive Officer of the Sue Lambert Trust shared this statement on the breach:
“We have been made aware of the data breach and would like to express our deepest sympathy and concern for all victims whose privacy has been compromised.
“It is possible that a number of our Sue Lambert Trust clients from Norfolk, both former and current, will be affected. We are of course extremely worried for the significant impact this could have on their mental health, wellbeing, and sense of safety.
“To provide some of the additional emotional and psychological support that may be needed by those named, Sue Lambert Trust is looking to provide a one-off additional counselling session to any of our former and current clients who need to speak to a professional, as well as people currently on our waiting list. While our professional counsellors are constantly in high demand, we always strive to be there for our clients, and will be offering this as a short-term measure of support in light of what has happened.
“We must also recognise that this breach could be triggering for people who are not our clients. Please, if you are a victim of sexual assault or sexual violence and are struggling after hearing this story, reach out, talk and ask for help.”
What happens now?
The data watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is investigating the breach.
Stephen Bonner, deputy commissioner at the ICO, said: "The potential impact of a breach like this reminds us that data protection is about people. It's too soon to say what our investigation will find, but this breach - and all breaches - highlights just how important it is to have robust measures in place to protect personal information, especially when that data is so sensitive.
"We are currently investigating this breach and a separate breach reported to us in November 2022.
"In the meantime, we'll continue to support organisations to get data protection right so that people can feel confident that their information is secure.
"If you're concerned about the way your information has been handled, you can get advice on what to do from our website."
"A full and thorough analysis into the data impacted has now been completed"
A joint statement from Norfolk and Suffolk Police said:
"Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies have identified an issue relating to a very small percentage of responses to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for crime statistics, issued between April 2021 and March 2022.
"A technical issue has led to some raw data belonging to the constabularies being included within the files produced in response to the FOI requests in question. The data was hidden from anyone opening the files, but it should not have been included.
"The data impacted was information held on a specific police system and related to crime reports. The data includes personal identifiable information on victims, witnesses, and suspects, as well as descriptions of offences. It related to a range of offences, including domestic incidents, sexual offences, assaults, thefts and hate crime.
"A full and thorough analysis into the data impacted has now been completed, and today we have started the process of contacting those individuals who need to be notified about an impact to their personal data.
"This will be done via letter, phone, and, in some cases, face to face, depending on what information was impacted and what support is required.
"We expect this process to be complete by the end of September. We will be notifying a total of 1,230 people whose data has been breached."