UK Defense Ministry Faulted for ‘Chaotic’ Failures Behind Afghan Data Leak

UK Defense Ministry Faulted for ‘Chaotic’ Failures Behind Afghan Data Leak
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British lawmakers have sharply criticized the UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) for what a parliamentary report described as “chaotic” decision-making and serious management failures that led to a major 2022 data breach exposing personal information of Afghans seeking relocation to Britain.

According to Arab News, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said on Friday that the breach—triggered when a British soldier mistakenly emailed a spreadsheet to a group of Afghans—compromised data on up to 19,000 applicants. According to MoD estimates cited by The Times, as many as 100,000 Afghans connected to UK military or government operations may ultimately have been put at risk.

The committee found the MoD had long been aware of vulnerabilities in its data-handling systems but continued to rely on Excel spreadsheets stored on SharePoint to manage thousands of sensitive records. Hidden rows in the file meant the soldier believed he was sending details for 150 people, not 19,000. The breach went undetected until August 2023, when a recipient threatened to publish the data online.

MPs criticized the ministry for failing to learn from past incidents and for withholding information from Parliament while an unprecedented court-imposed superinjunction was in place. Nearly 30,000 affected Afghans have since been resettled or cleared for relocation, while thousands remain awaiting processing.