NEW DELHI: British authorities have launched an investigation after its foreign office mistakenly sent emails meant for the United States (US) intelligence to Mali, a Russian ally, according to reports.
According to a report by The Times, officials from the UK Ministry of Defence had intended to dispatch these emails to the Pentagon, but an inadvertent typographical error led to their transmission to Mali’s government instead. The confusion arose from the similarity in domain names, as the Pentagon utilizes the “.mil” domain, while Mali employs “.ml.”
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In response to the mishap, the ministry on Friday said that they were actively investigating the matter. “We have opened an investigation after a small number of emails were mistakenly forwarded to an incorrect email domain,” a ministry spokesperson informed.
The content of the misdirected emails varied, as per The Times’ account. While some were innocuous, containing information about the schedules of foreign ministry employees during their vacations, others reportedly contained “detailed descriptions” of British research pertaining to hypersonic missiles.
However, the ministry refuted the claims made by the report, deeming them misleading. “This report misleadingly claims state secrets were sent to Mali’s email domain. We assess fewer than 20 routine emails were sent to an incorrect domain & are confident there was no breach of operational security or disclosure of technical data. An investigation is ongoing. Emails of this kind are not classified at secret or above,” it said.
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The official said that sensitive information is shared through systems designed to minimize the risk of misdirection.
Earlier this month, an investigation conducted by the Financial Times revealed that a multitude of emails intended for the Pentagon had been unintentionally routed to Mali due to the same typographical error. Disturbingly, some of these emails contained sensitive information, including diplomatic documents, tax returns, passwords, and details of officers’ travel arrangements.