Over the course of a 20-day period at the beginning of the year, the personal information of hundreds of state employees was published online. The information was published by accident as part of a test website set up by IT company Miracle.

The mistake was discovered after a Danish Prison and Probation Service employee googled his name and discovered that some of his confidential information was available online.

Several branches hit
The leak had not been publicly acknowledged until now, but the government has confirmed that the Prison and Probation Service, the Foreign Ministry and the Health and Welfare  Board were all affected.

The Prison and Probation Service has 592 employees, many of whom are prison guards, while the Foreign Ministry and Health and Welfare board could not disclose which personnel, and how many, were affected.

Prison guards at risk
The leak particularly affects those working in prisons as they are exposed to threats, harassment and acts of revenge from former inmates and criminal groups. Therefore guards are often taught to be careful when it comes to the internet.

“When you are in an institution such as ours, with this kind of threat level, from both prisoners and outside the walls, then it sure as hell isn’t very lucky to find out our personal data is just floating around on the internet,” Kim Østerbye, the head of the Prison Union, told Ritzau.