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UK watchdog: hackers hit suppliers holding British police data
The Record reported that His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary said third-party suppliers holding British police data have been compromised repeatedly since 2021.
A British policing watchdog said hackers have repeatedly compromised third-party suppliers that hold police information since 2021, The Record reported, citing a report published Tuesday by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services1.
The inspectorate, which oversees policing in England and Wales and fire services in England, said the Police Digital Service and the National Police Chiefs' Council shared information on multiple cyberattacks affecting third-party ICT supply chains that held police information, according to The Record1.
The report did not say how many attacks took place, which suppliers or forces were affected, or whether data was stolen in those supply-chain incidents, The Record said1. The inspectorate said it removed operational details it considered unsuitable for the public domain1.
The Record said neither the Home Office nor the National Police Chiefs' Council responded to questions about whether police data was compromised in the supplier attacks1.
Police Digital Service recorded 252 cybersecurity incidents affecting policing in the first three months of this year and 796 near misses, defined as incidents with no harmful breach of data or IT systems, the watchdog said, according to The Record1. The report did not say how many of the 252 involved data loss1. The incidents included malware attacks, unauthorized access attempts and accidental disclosures by police staff, The Record reported1.
Inspectors also identified examples of police forces and fire and rescue services experiencing cyberattacks that hit operational systems, compromised data and disrupted services, The Record said1. Leaders in both sectors told the watchdog that further attacks were highly likely1.
The Police Digital Service, set up in 2021, runs a national security operations center and warned that police data held on suppliers' systems was among the biggest risks because it sits outside that monitoring, according to The Record1. The risk is particularly critical where suppliers handle information on victims, safeguarding, intelligence and investigations, the report said1.
Inspectors found that most police supplier contracts included no ongoing cybersecurity assurance, The Record reported1. In some cases staff could not say whether suppliers were obliged to report incidents promptly, and in several organizations supplier system logs were not routinely visible to in-house teams1.
The inspectorate also criticized the government for leaving policing and fire services out of the National Risk Register 2025, the Government Cyber Action Plan published in January and the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill still going through Parliament, The Record said1. Inspectors said no government official they asked could explain the omissions1.
The Record noted public incidents in the same period, including a 2023 ransomware attack on ID card maker Digital ID that exposed Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police staff details, a July theft of officer contact details from the Police National Legal Database, and a September disclosure by Dyfed-Powys Police of a cyberattack that disrupted non-emergency systems1. Those cases were not identified in the inspectorate report as the unnamed supplier attacks1.
His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary Michelle Skeer said the cyber threat to police and fire services is significant and expanding rapidly, according to The Record1. "A major cyberattack is not a hypothetical scenario," Skeer said1.
