In a further demonstration of the ineptitude of the British state, it was revealed today that the Ministry of Defence accidentally sent classified information to a country that is allied with Russia.
Officials working in the ministry had tried to send emails to the Pentagon, which uses the domain name “.mil,” but missed the letter “i,” thereby sending the messages to Mali, which uses the domain name “.ml,” according to The Times.
Senior Mali officials have been sanctioned by the U.S., which has accused them of supporting the rise of the Wagner group in their nation. Colonel Assimi Goita, the head of Mali’s junta, has also publicly thanked Vladimir Putin for supporting the security of the West African country.
The Times reported that most of the emails sent to Mali contained “trivial information,” while others contained “detailed descriptions of British research into hypersonic missiles.”
The Ministry of Defence issued a response to the story, which said: “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 into the errors has been launched.
This mishap has been outdone by the U.S., which was earlier this month exposed by the Financial Times for having sent millions of military emails to Mali due to the same typo. Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch internet specialist who noticed the mistake, said, “This risk is real and could be exploited by adversaries of the U.S.”
