The UK Ministry of Defence has been fined over an “egregious” email leak of Afghan interpreters' personal details.
The government department has been slapped with a £350,000 penalty for revealing the information of 265 people - who worked with the British Army amid the 20-year occupation - trying to escape the Taliban when they took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 by the Information Commissioners’ Office.
The head of the agency, John Edwards, ruled the mistake "let down those to whom our country owes so much."
He added: “This was a particularly egregious breach of the obligation of security owed to these people, thus warranting the financial penalty my office imposes today.”
The breach was first reported by the BBC a month after the withdrawal of US and UK forces from the country - which they entered in 2001 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks - and it took place when the Afghan relocations and assistance policy team sent an email to 245 people who were labelled for evacuation after they had previously worked with the government.
The affected people - who mainly worked as translators - had their email addresses inserted into the “to” box as opposed to the data-compliant “blind carbon copy” box; therefore, their contact information was visible to everyone on the message chain.
More personal information was divulged - such as some people’s whereabouts - when recipients hit the “Reply All” button.
The ICO’s investigation found this happened on two other occasions, bringing up the impacted total of people to 265. They also have said prior this mistake is one of the most common data breaches.
In 2021, a victim of this issue told BBC News that it "could cost the life of interpreters, especially for those who are still in Afghanistan."
They continued: "Some of the interpreters didn't notice the mistake and they replied to all the emails already and they explained their situation which is very dangerous. The email contains their profile pictures and contact details."
The former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace expressed how angry he was about the issue at the time.
He said that the breach "let down the thousands of members of the armed forces and veterans.”
