Personal details of UK special forces and spies were included in Afghan data breach

BBC News

17-07-2025

Update:
Date: 16:37 BST
Title: Why the latest revelation was allowed to be reported
Content: Joel GunterReporting from the High Court
Very little was
said in court today that the public was allowed to hear – but what was said
paved the way for the dramatic revelation that current and former members of
the UK's special forces and security services were compromised by this leak.
The judge, Mr
Justice Chamberlain, told the court that the barristers for the Ministry of
Defence and for a group of media organisations had reached a compromise in a
closed-door hearing.
That meant that
the media organisations involved in the case – including The Mail, Global Media
and the Independent – could now report that sensitive British officials were in
the leak.
That revelation
had been prevented by an injunction issued earlier this week, but then Defence Secretary John Healey said in Parliament on Tuesday that a "small
number" of senior military officials, MPs and other government officials had
been affected.
Then on Wednesday
the Sun newspaper reported that special forces and spies were involved. It was
enough to push the group of media organisations in this case to request an
emergency hearing and ask the judge to lift the restrictions on them.
Update:
Date: 16:20 BST
Title: The data breach was much worse than we thought
Content: Joel GunterReporting from the High Court
It was already a huge scandal
earlier this week, when the country learned that the details of thousands of
Afghans at risk from the Taliban had been accidentally leaked by someone in UK
Special Forces headquarters, and a secret scheme had been set up to bring them
to the UK.
Today we can report that the
data breach was much worse than previously thought: it contained personal
details of more than 100 British officials including those whose identities are
most closely guarded – special forces and spies.
In the light of today's
revelations, it is no wonder that the British government obtained an
unprecedented super-injunction, a kind of gagging order that prevents the
reporting of even the existence of the injunction.
Taken together, the leak of
the personal information of both at-risk Afghans and some of the most sensitive
officials in the UK make this one of the worst security breaches in modern
British history.
Update:
Date: 16:05 BST
Title: Special forces' identities are tightly kept secrets
Content: Joel GunterReporting from the High Court
The security breach
was kept under wraps by an injunction until today, when the gagging order
was lifted in part by a High Court judge.
Details of more than 100 British officials were included in
the leaked data, which may have fallen into the hands of the Taliban.
The identities of
members of the UK's special forces regiments, including the SAS and SBS, and
the identities of people working in the security services are tightly kept
secrets.
The breach occurred
in February 2022, when a database was accidentally emailed outside of
government by an individual working at UK Special Forces headquarters in
London.
The database also
contained the personal information of
nearly 19,000 Afghans who had
worked with the British during the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan and had
applied to be resettled to the UK after the Taliban retook control in 2021.
Many of those who had applied were judged to be at risk of
serious harm or even death as the Taliban sought revenge against those who had
worked with the British government during the war.
Update:
Date: 15:59 BST
Title: More than 100 British people included in Afghan data leak
Content: The details of more than 100 British people - including spies and special forces - were included in a massive data leak that resulted in thousands of Afghans being secretly relocated to the UK.
This is a breaking story and we will bring you more information shortly - stay with us.