the national crime agency and the information commissioner s office have been informed. with me now is our correspondent, joe inwood. joe, what more do we know about this? it joe, what more do we know about this? , , ., , , ., this? it seems that this is a company this? it seems that this is a company that this? it seems that this is a company that was - this? it seems that this is a company that was working | this? it seems that this is a l company that was working on this? it seems that this is a - company that was working on behalf of the met police. issuing ids and warrant cards. so they had all this please state, sensitive data, names, ranks and security clearance and photos. and the fear is this company was targeted by some sort of cyber attack, that systems could have been compromised. we haven t received exact info about what has happened but the idea is if this company held the data and it has been attacked, that could be out there and have serious implications. it s worth
to make warrant cards. it s similar to the situation british airways, boots, and the bbc found themselves in when their payroll provider was hacked. in the event of the hack, clearly there s been weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the system, whoever is managing and maintaining it, if we are indeed going off the outsourcing. so it s all good and well protecting the front end, but it s got to be the back end as well. the ones who are behind the scenes, if you like, in this instance an it company. the met police say the incident has been reported to the national crime agency and the information commissioner. there are many unanswered questions about this latest attack. who was behind it? how many officers are affected? and what might the loss of this highly sensitive data mean for their security? joe inwood, bbc news. jake moore is a global cybersecurity adviser at the software firm eset, and he gave his reaction to the suspected data breach.
of data leaks at other forces, including one at the police service of northern ireland, which saw the details of all staff accidentally published. those were human error. this seems to be a targeted attack on a third party it company thought to be contracted by the met to make warrant cards. it s similar to the situation british airways, boots, and the bbc found themselves in when their payroll provider was hacked. in the event of the hack, clearly there s been weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the system, whoever is managing and maintaining it, if we are indeed going off the outsourcing. so it s all good and well protecting the front end, but it s got to be the back end as well, the ones who are behind the scenes, if you like, in this instance an it company. the met police say the incident has been reported to the national crime agency and the information commissioner. there are many unanswered questions about this latest attack. who was behind it? how many officers are affected? and
but the met say there was a data breach at a third party supplier that had access to information like names, photos and security clearance, but not police contact information. the force says extra security measures have now been put in place. it comes just weeks after a series of data leaks at other forces, including one at the police service of northern ireland, which saw the details of all staff accidentally published. those were human error. this seems to be a targeted attack on a third party it company thought to be contracted by the met to make warrant cards. it s similar to the situation british airways, boots, and the bbc found themselves in when their payroll provider was hacked. in the event of the hack, clearly there s been weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the system, whoever is managing and maintaining it, if we are indeed going off the outsourcing. so it s all good and well protecting the front end, but it s got to be the back end as well.