The personal details of British spies and special forces personnel were included in the Afghan data breach that led to an unprecedented superinjunction, it has emerged.
It was previously reported that a list accidentally sent in an insecure email by a military official contained information relating to almost 19,000 Afghans who helped to support British forces in the fight against the Taliban.
Following the lifting of the two-year superinjunction on Tuesday, it has been revealed that the document also held data relating to more than 100 British people.
They included MI6 spies as well as special forces and SAS personnel.
The data breach, which happened in February 2022, was only discovered by the government when an extract was posted on Facebook 18 months later.
Then-Defence Secretary Ben Wallace asked a judge for an injunction to prevent the information contained in the dataset being published.
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However, the judge instead placed the case under a superinjunction, preventing any details about the breach or the injunction itself from being published.
Meanwhile, the largest covert evacuation in peacetime history was launched to get Afghans out of the country, out of concern their lives could be at risk from the Taliban.
The programme, named the Afghanistan Response Route, has cost around £400 million so far and could cost around £850 million by the time it ends.
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Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs on Tuesday: ‘This serious data incident should never have happened.
‘It may have occurred three years ago under the previous government, but to all those whose information was compromised, I offer a sincere apology today on behalf of the British Government, and I trust the shadow defence secretary, as a former defence minister, will join me.’
Iraq veteran and Lib Dem defence spokesperson Helen Maguire MP called for the government to ‘immediately launch an inquiry into this devastating scandal’.
She said: ‘The more we find out about this data leak, the worse it gets.
‘Highly confidential details, including our own special forces’ personal identities – should never have been somewhere where they could accidentally be shared, and potentially fall into the hands of the Taliban.’
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