The emails were accidentally sent to Mali, Russia’s partner, due to a small typo
Millions of US military emails accidentally sent to Russia’s partner Mali due to a small typo, according to a BBC report.
Emails destined for the US military’s “.mil” domain have, for years, been sent to the West African country that ends with the “.ml” domain suffix.
Some of the emails allegedly contained sensitive informationsuch as passwords, medical records and itineraries of senior officers.
The Pentagon said it had taken steps to address the issue.
According to the Financial Times, which first reported the story, Dutch internet entrepreneur Johannes Zuurbier identified the problem over 10 years ago.
Since 2013, it has been contracted to manage the Mali country domain and, in recent months, has reportedly collected tens of thousands of malformed emails.
None marked as classifiedbut, according to the newspaper, they included medical data, maps of US military installations, financial records and planning documents for official travel as well as some diplomatic messages.
Mr Zuurbier wrote a letter to US officials this month to sound the alarm. He said his contract with the Malian government was due to expire soon, meaning “the risk is real and could be exploited by US adversaries.”
The military government of Mali was to take control of the domain on Monday.
US military communications marked “classified” and “top secret” are transmitted through separate systems that make them unlikely to be accidentally intercepted, according to current and former US officials.
But Steven Stransky, a lawyer who previously served as a senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security’s Intelligence Division, said even seemingly innocuous information could prove useful to US adversaries, particularly if it included individual personnel information.
“These communications would mean that a foreign actor could start creating files on our own military personnel, for espionage purposes, or could try to get them to divulge information in exchange for financial gain.” said Mr. Stransky. “It’s certainly information a foreign government can use».
Source :Skai
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