Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Friday that an investigation has been launched after news broke that military emails were mistakenly sent to a Russian ally.
The emails were intended to be sent to the U.S. military, but were instead sent to the west African nation of Mali, an ally of Russia, according to BBC. The mistake apparently derived from a misspelled email address. The U.S. uses the domain “.mil,” while Mali uses “.ml.”
Mali is an ally of Russia, having been promised free grain shipments by Russian President Vladimir Putin in early July. The U.S. has also attempted to sanction Mali for the nation’s relationship with Moscow’s Wagner mercenaries.
(1/2) This report misleadingly claims state secrets were sent to Mali’s email domain. We assess fewer than 20 routine emails were sent to an incorrect domain & are confident there was no breach of operational security or disclosure of technical data. https://t.co/frvgl3PE8C
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 28, 2023
The MoD claimed that less than 20 emails were sent to the incorrect domain and that they were not classified. “We have opened an investigation after a small number of emails were mistakenly forwarded to an incorrect email domain,” an MoD spokesperson said of the situation. (RELATED: Musk Says ‘Absurd’ Russian Thread On Apocalyptic Predictions For 2023 Is ‘Epic’)
But the MoD is not alone. The U.S. also sent millions of emails to Mali because of the simple email error, the BBC continued, citing a previous article. Some of those emails contained classified and other forms of sensitive information, including email passwords, medical records and the itineraries of leading officers.