The Ministry of Justice has mentioned it’s acutely aware of a knowledge breach affecting prisons in England and Wales.
Confidential jail layouts were leaked onto the darkish internet up to now two weeks, in step with The Instances.
A former jail governor instructed the paper organised crime teams may doubtlessly use the ideas to smuggle medication or guns into prisons, or plan escapes.
The MoJ mentioned that it had “taken fast motion to make sure prisons stay protected”.
The Instances reported jail government suspect that the leak is also connected to organised crime teams aiming to make use of drones to smuggle drug into prisons, whilst the blueprints might be used to evade security features.
The leaked blueprints are reported to incorporate the places of key safety features, equivalent to cameras and sensors, making it more uncomplicated for criminals to avoid safety or exploit vulnerabilities.
It isn’t transparent which jail plans had been affected.
The Cupboard Place of business and the Jail Carrier are mentioned to be operating to spot the supply of the breach and assess who would possibly get pleasure from the ideas.
The Nationwide Crime Company instructed the BBC it used to be offering improve in an advisory capability, however it could be “wrong” to mention it used to be investigating the incident.
A MoJ spokesman mentioned: “We aren’t going to remark at the particular element of safety issues of this type, however we’re acutely aware of a breach of information to the jail property and prefer with all doable breaches have taken fast motion to make sure prisons stay protected.”
The leak used to be first flagged in an interior alert issued previous this month, observed through the paper.