Inquiry finds MoD Afghan data breach was foreseeable failure

Inquiry finds MoD Afghan data breach was foreseeable failureImage caption, Britain set up scheme to bring those thought to be the most in danger to safetyByHenry Moore and Hannah O'GradyPublished1 minute agoA data breach that exposed personal details of thousands of Afghans applying to come to the UK to flee the Taliban was a "foreseeable" failure, a parliamentary inquiry has found. In a report published on Thursday, the Commons' Defence Committee said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had lacked the expertise to run the UK's Afghan relocation scheme after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and had used secrecy as a "shield" against proper accountability.The breach came to light in August 2023 but an unprecedented super-injunction prevented it from being reported on until July 2025.A MoD spokesperson said the leak "should never have happened" and welcomed the opportunity to learn from the incident.Man's anger as brother left in Afghanistan after data breachPublished7 JuneA super-injunction is a court-mandated gagging order that forbids news outlets from reporting private or sensitive information.It also bans the media from revealing that the injunction exists.The leak was not "an individual mistake" but a "foreseeable systemic failure" caused by "inappropriate tools, weak operating procedures, insufficient training, poor organisational continuity, and an inadequate culture of data protection and accountability", the Defence Committee said in its report.The breach, just one of 19 reported between February 2022 and November 2023, was caused by a member of MoD personnel sharing a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with a "trusted third party", the committee added. The BBC previously revealed the breach had originated from UK Special Forces (UKSF) headquarters.The spreadsheet contained data of more than 18,500 applicants to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme - every pers...