LONDON: The UK Ministry of Defense has been sharply criticized by British lawmakers over what a parliamentary report described as a series of “chaotic” decisions and serious failings that led to the 2022 leak of sensitive data belonging to tens of thousands of Afghans seeking relocation to Britain.
The data breach, which was triggered when a British soldier mistakenly sent a spreadsheet of applicants to a group of Afghans, exposed the personal information of up to 19,000 people.
According to the MoD, as many as 100,000 Afghans may ultimately have been placed at risk, including individuals connected to British special forces and government operations, The Times newspaper reported on Friday.
The incident prompted the government to secure an unprecedented superinjunction — at the time the longest ever issued — and set in motion a secret multibillion-pound effort to extract some of the affected Afghans, while others were left in danger inside the country.
A report released on Friday by the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee said the ministry had been aware of vulnerabilities in the way it was managing data but failed to put proper safeguards in place as the volume of sensitive information rapidly increased.
