Secret UK data breach that put 100,000 Afghans' lives at risk is revealed after super-injunction lifted
©UK Independent
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A data breach at the UK's ministry of defence (MoD) put the lives of up to 100,000 Afghans at risk and prompted thousands to be evacuated to the UK under a covert £7bn (€8bn) scheme, it was revealed yesterday.
The scheme was kept secret for almost two years by an unprecedented super-injunction.
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The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Taliban ‘already murdering Afghans linked to foreign military' days after chilling warning over MoD ‘kill list' leak
THE TALIBAN are reportedly already murdering Afghans linked to foreign militaries - days after a huge MoD data leak. Fears have been growing over the safety of more than 18,000 Afghans whose details were included on the secret list. Advertisement 3 The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021 Credit: Getty 3 Details of almost 20,000 refugees fleeing the Taliban were leaked after a top secret email was sent to the wrong person Credit: AP 3 A number of named individuals have already been assassinated Credit: AFP A number of named individuals have been assassinated since the leak with one man shot four times in the chest at close range on Monday one of three assassinations in the past week according to the It comes after the Taliban sent a fleeing the Taliban were leaked after a Royal Marine mistakenly sent a top secret email to the wrong people. Since then panic has been spreading as up to 100,000 could face deadly repercussions from ruthless Taliban rulers who hunt down and kill anyone who helped the UK forces. Advertisement Read more News But sources have insisted it was impossible to prove conclusively whether it was a direct result of the data breach. Afghans were informed on Tuesday that their personal details had been lost including names, phone numbers and their family's details as well as other details that could help the Taliban hunt them down. It is not yet known whether the Taliban is in possession of the database. It includes names of Afghans as well as the names of their individual UK sponsors including Major General. Advertisement Most read in The Sun Breaking Exclusive One Afghan soldier who fled to Britain in fear of retribution, believes his brother was shot in the street this week because the Taliban believed he was affiliated to the UK. "If or when the Taliban have this list, then killings will increase – and it will be Britain's fault," he said. Taliban warns thousands of Afghans secretly airlifted to UK 'we will HUNT you down' "There will be many more executions like the one on Monday." He is convinced his sibling was executed because of his own association with Afghan special forces, known as the Triples. Advertisement He believes that the Taliban sought revenge on his family instead as news of his brother's murder reached him in Britain within an hour of the execution. A day later, Taliban fighters dragged a woman from her home and beat her in the street. A former British military interpreter who witnessed the attack claimed it was because the woman's husband "worked for the West" and is now hiding in Iran. Taliban officials have claimed the details of all the refugees have been known to them since 2022, after they allegedly sourced the information from the internet. Advertisement A dossier listing more than 300 murders includes those who worked with the UK and some who had applied for the UK's Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme. This includes senior Afghan intelligence officer, Colonel Shafiq Ahmad Khan, a 61-year-old grandfather who had worked alongside British forces. He was shot in the heart on his doorstep in May 2022. There has been fury this week over the data breach's deadly implications with one angry former interpreter saying: "We risked our lives for the UK standing beside them day after day, now they are risking our lives again." Advertisement The epic MoD blunder was kept Top Secret for almost three years by a legal super injunction. And the government is still battling the courts to keep details behind the Afghan data leak secret. Thousands of the refugees had to be secretly relocated to the UK and it is set to cost Britain up to £7 billion. A total of 18,714 Afghans were included on the secret list, many of whom arrived via unmarked planes which landed at airport. Advertisement Many of the Afghans who were flown into the country as part of Operation Rubific were initially housed at MoD homes or hotels until permanent accommodation was found. Only around 10 to 15 per cent of the individuals on the list would have qualified for relocation under the emergency Afghan Relocation and Assistance Programme, known as ARAP, opened as Kabul fell to the But the leak means many more now have a valid claim for assistance and relocation.
Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Irish Independent
Hundreds more MoD data breaches revealed as security questions raised in wake of Afghan breach
The latest MoD data shows there were 569 incidents in 2023-24 – up from 550 the previous year – which included electronic devices being lost and protected documents not being disposed of properly. In one incident last year, the details of 272,000 staff – including names and bank details – were breached when one of its systems, run by an external contractor, was hacked by a 'malign actor'. In another case, the MoD was fined £350,000 (€404,000) by the Information Commissioner for a breach related to the handling of emails linked to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) – the scheme to bring Afghans with links to British forces to safety in UK. Kevan Jones, the chairman of the powerful Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), has demanded that the MoD give an explanation as to why high-security information is being held on low-security systems. It follows the revelation this week of a catastrophic data breach, which exposed 100,000 Afghans to potential reprisals from the Taliban, costing the UK taxpayer billions and prompting a three-year cover-up through the use of an unprecedented super-injunction. Further concerns emerged on Thursday after it was revealed that UK spies and special forces soldiers were also potentially exposed by the incident. Already, members of the ISC, which has a statutory duty to hold government agencies to account, are furious that the MoD ignored a request by a judge to share the details of the original Afghan data breach with the committee. But now the Labour peer who chairs the committee has raised questions over whether the MoD's systems to handle sensitive data are good enough. Mr Jones said: 'There seems to have been a number of breaches. It raises questions not just about the systems but how they are used. "The big unanswered question on the Afghanistan data leak is why such secret information was being held on a low-side system and not a secure encrypted system.' ADVERTISEMENT The ISC has demanded documents relating to the Afghan breach and could launch its own inquiry into the scandal. But the issue is also set to be raised in the inquiry that the Commons defence select committee will hold after the summer recess. Tan Dhesi, the Labour defence select committee chair, said: 'This is going to end up being one of the most costly email blunders in history. . 'Rigorous safeguards must be in place to ensure that this cannot happen again. " It's shameful that courageous Afghans who served alongside British soldiers have had their safety jeopardised by this leak. 'The revelation that this breach has also put our brave British service personnel at risk makes the situation even more shocking.
The Journal
6 days ago
- The Journal
British special forces and MI6 spies among more than 100 Britons included in Afghan data leak
THE DETAILS OF more than 100 Britons, including spies and special forces, were included in a massive data leak that resulted in thousands of Afghans being secretly relocated to the UK. Defence sources have said that details of MI6 spies, SAS and special forces personnel were included in the spreadsheet, after they had endorsed Afghans who had applied to be brought to the UK. The dataset, containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap), was released 'in error' in February 2022 by a defence official. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) became aware of the breach more than a year later, when excerpts of the spreadsheet were anonymously posted in a Facebook group in August 2023. Other details leaked included the names and contact details of the Arap applicants and names of their family members. In a statement on Tuesday, after an unprecedented superinjunction was lifted by a UK High Court judge, British Defence Secretary John Healey offered a 'sincere apology' on behalf of the Government for the data breach. He later told the Commons the spreadsheet contained 'names and contact details of applicants and, in some instances, information relating to applicants' family members, and in a small number of cases the names of members of Parliament, senior military officers and Government officials were noted as supporting the application'. 'This was a serious departmental error,' he added. Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge also apologised on behalf of the former Conservative government, which was in power when the leak happened and when it was discovered more than a year later. Cartlidge later asked Healey about reports that someone other than the original person who leaked the data had been engaged in blackmail. Arap was responsible for relocating Afghan nationals who had worked for or with the UK Government and were therefore at risk of reprisals once the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people, including the estimated number of family members of the Arap applicants, were affected by the breach and could be at risk of harassment, torture or death if the Taliban obtained their data, judges said in June 2024. However, an independent review, commissioned by the UK Government in January 2025, concluded last month that the dataset is 'unlikely to significantly shift Taliban understanding of individuals who may be of interest to them'. Advertisement The breach resulted in the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – by the previous government in April 2024. The scheme is understood to have cost around £400 million (€463m) so far, with a projected cost once completed of around £850 million (€983m). Millions more are expected to be paid in legal costs and compensation. Around 4,500 people, made up of 900 Arap applicants and approximately 3,600 family members, have been brought to the UK or are in transit so far through the Afghanistan Response Route. A further estimated 600 people and their relatives are expected to be relocated before the scheme closes, with a total of around 6,900 people expected to be relocated by the end of the scheme. Projected costs of the scheme may include relocation costs, transitional accommodation, legal costs and local authority tariffs. The case returned to the High Court in London today, sitting in a closed session in the morning where journalists and their lawyers were excluded. While private hearings exclude the public and press but allow the parties in the case to remain, closed hearings require specific lawyers who can deal with sensitive issues, including national security. During the public part of the hearing, Mr Justice Chamberlain said that while he needed to give lawyers for the Ministry of Defence an 'opportunity' to argue why a closed hearing was needed, 'I will be scrutinising very carefully any justification for holding any part of this hearing in private, let alone in closed'. The judge later said he would not be 'kicking the ball down the road'. He added: 'The superinjunction has now been lifted and if there are other matters that are capable of being reported in public, that needs to be able to happen straight away.' Also on Thursday, Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) requested a number of documents used in the superinjunction proceedings be provided to it 'immediately'. This includes intelligence assessments from the MoD and the Joint Intelligence Organisation, as well as the unredacted report of retired civil servant Paul Rimmer. The ISC has also asked for the reasons why barristers for the UK Government previously told the Court of Appeal that information about the breach could not be shared with it.
