British authorities have initiated an investigation as it’s officials
mistakenly sent emails meant for US military intelligence to the government in Mali.
According to the Times report on Thursday, the emails were supposed to
be sent to Pentagon, but were accidentally sent to Mali, a known ally of Russia, due to a typo, as the Pentagon’s domain name is “.mil,” while
Mali’s is “.ml.”
According to a spokesperson from Reuters, the Ministry of Defense said,
on Friday, they have initiated an investigation into the incident.
“We have opened an investigation after a small number of emails were mistakenly forwarded to an incorrect email domain.”
According to the Times, while most emails sent to Mali have no ill effect, containing information such as dates when the employees from the foreign ministry were on holiday, others contained “detailed descriptions” of British research into hypersonic missiles.
However, the Ministry of Defense said that the Times’ reports were 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,” the ministry said Friday.
“An investigation is ongoing. Emails of this kind are not classified as secret or above.”
Earlier this month, an investigation by the Financial Times found that millions of emails meant for the Pentagon have been sent to Mali as a result of the same typo. Some of these emails included sensitive information, such as diplomatic documents, tax returns, passwords and officers’ travel details, the investigation found.
Source: Politico