A mistake by a special forces officer led to a leak of data from British intelligence officers and 19,000 Afghans

In February 2022, an employee of the British special forces headquarters in London made a serious mistake: he accidentally sent a file with personal data to the wrong people. Instead of transmitting information only inside the government group, he sent it outside the system. As a result, the personal data of more than 100 Britons, including intelligence and special forces personnel, were publicly available.

But that's not all. The same file contained the data of almost 19,000 Afghans who collaborated with the British military during the 20-year British presence in Afghanistan. These people applied for evacuation to the UK after the Taliban seized power in the country in 2021. The employee thought that he was sending information about only 150 people, but in fact the leak was much larger.

This mistake has put the lives and safety of thousands of people at risk. After all, the Taliban actively persecutes those who worked for Western countries, especially the United Kingdom and the United States. After returning to power, they have repeatedly stated their intentions to punish the "accomplices" of Western states.

Interestingly, this leak became known only in August 2023, when information suddenly appeared in one of the Facebook groups. Since then, the authorities have gradually revealed the scale of what happened, but many questions remain unanswered, such as who exactly received this data and what was done about it.

In general, one accidental sending of a document became one of the most serious data leaks in the history of the UK, comparable in threat to espionage scandals or cyber attacks.