The personal details of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers have been hacked after the force was targeted in a cyber attack.
Assistant chief constable Colin McFarlane confirmed a “third-party supplier” of various organisations – including GMP – has been targeted.
That firm holds “some information” on the force’s employees.
“At this stage, it’s not believed this data includes financial information,” he added.
“We understand how concerning this is for our employees so, as we work to understand any impact on GMP, we have contacted the Information Commissioners Office and are doing everything we can to ensure employees are kept informed, their questions are answered, and they feel supported.
“This is being treated extremely seriously, with a nationally-led criminal investigation into the attack.”
It comes little more than a month after officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) were left “incredibly vulnerable” by a massive data breach compromising details of serving officers and staff.
The breach involved the surname, initials, rank or grade, work location and departments of all PSNI staff, but did not involve the officers’ and civilians’ private addresses.
The leak came as a result of information published in response to a Freedom of Information request.
PSNI’s then-chief constable Simon Byrne resigned earlier this month following a series of controversies including the data breach.
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