Sensitive UK police data vulnerable to ‘compromise’ by US government and foreign actors
A Guardian investigation has revealed that sensitive data held by more than 40 UK police forces — including criminal records, victim statements, and internal communications — is stored on Microsoft cloud platforms that a UK government security assessment identified as potentially vulnerable to access by the US government and foreign actors.
Why this matters: This is not an abstract risk. Criminal records and victim statements are some of the most sensitive information the state holds on ordinary people. Storing that data in a foreign commercial cloud means another government may have a legal path to it, and hostile actors may have a technical one. The people in those files never got a say in that arrangement. When police forces outsource data to platforms they do not fully control, the question of who really holds that data — and who can reach it — matters enormously.
Who should care: Cybersecurity · Privacy officers · Administrators · Lawyers · Compliance
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