THE POLICE SERVICE of Northern Ireland (PSNI) says that no report has been made to it about a possible data breach.

A story in this morning’s Irish News reports that a pen drive containing the details of hundreds of Northern Irish citizens was handed over to paramilitaries accidentally.

The story claims that the drive was left in a computer which had been taken for forensic examination.

When the computer was returned, a source told the paper, the drive was still there.

The story says that thousands of pages of data including emails, email passwords and details of citizens and businesses was on the drive.

However, a PSNI statement says that the incident has not been reported internally. The force did not say that the incident did not happen.

“No report of this nature has been made through the PSNI’s incident reporting and security standards which are in force for all staff and officers to follow.”

The Irish News says it has seen the data, but will not make public specifics.