UK Police Data on Microsoft Cloud | UK News

0:00It's September 18th. From breaking headlines to national stories, this is UK news today, powered by AI. So, it turns out a lot of really sensitive UK police data, like criminal records and victim statements, is sitting on Microsoft's cloud. An official security assessment flagged this platform as vulnerable, meaning foreign governments and even the US government could potentially access. This decision to move data to the cloud was made back in 2017, with officers acknowledging that US government insiders might see the information and that it could be sent anywhere in the world, with the full extent of that being unknown. This situation hasn't really changed much since then. Almost every police force in the UK now relies on Microsoft Azure, and the UK government is spending a massive amount, at least 1.9 billion pounds annually on Microsoft software. Despite Microsoft's claims about data security, experts who reviewed the findings believe the risks identified years ago are still very real.

1:02Back in 2017, a senior police officer, who was also the top information risk owner for all of Britain, chaired a meeting where these risks were discussed. The data in question wasn't just regular stuff, a significant amount was classified higher than official, meaning it could be secret or even top, secret. The assessment suggested the platform could in guarantee the data security, making it a prime target for attackers. Now the National Police Chiefs Council says, access to this cloud data is strictly controlled, but some Microsoft engineers who looked at the findings suggest hundreds of people globally, some not even vetted or directly employed by Microsoft, could potentially view this information. It's a complex web, and it's unclear if the full implications of this reliance on US tech giants are truly understood. The reality is, US law, like the cloud act, allows US authorities to access data held by US companies, even if it's stored overseas. While Microsoft says they haven't handed over UK data in response to US requests and would follow UK law, legal

2:05experts point out that contractual. Promises might not hold up against official demands. It's a situation where the exact security of the sensitive data remains a significant question mark.