Data Breach Unmasks Over 100 British Operatives Linked to Afghan Mission
A shocking data breach has compromised the identities of over 100 British personnel, including elite SAS troops and MI6 officers, in what’s now being called one of the most serious information leaks in recent defence history.
A court injunction that had buried the incident for months was partially lifted on Thursday, exposing new details about the extent of the fallout.
Secret case files were revealed to include the personal data of operatives involved in Afghanistan, throwing national security protocols into sharp question.
“We take the security of our personnel very seriously, particularly of those in sensitive positions, and always have appropriate measures in place to protect their security,” a Ministry of Defence spokesperson confirmed.
But with trust now in tatters, many are questioning whether those “measures” were ever truly sufficient.
The breach didn’t just affect UK officials. Nearly 19,000 Afghans who supported British forces during the two-decade war also had their details leaked.
The government admitted this earlier in the week, acknowledging that many of those exposed were in grave danger due to Taliban reprisals. Some faced threats. Others were forced into hiding.
Here’s where it gets worse. The breach occurred in February 2022, yet officials only realised its existence eighteen months later, in August 2023, when a person in Afghanistan publicly posted part of the stolen data to Facebook and threatened to release more.
According to insiders, this individual was then flown to the UK under a fast-tracked relocation scheme.
Government sources told the BBC this act was “essentially blackmail.” Still, the MoD refrained from commenting directly on the case. Instead, they insisted that “anyone who comes to the UK under any Afghan relocation schemes” must pass “robust security checks to gain entry.”
But questions are mounting: Who approved the upload? Who failed to act sooner? And how was such sensitive data sent—mistakenly—to someone completely unauthorised?
“Serious departmental error.” That’s how Defence Secretary John Healey described it in Parliament this week. He admitted the event was “just one of many data losses” tied to the UK’s Afghan relocation efforts.
It emerged that a government employee at UK Special Forces HQ in London had emailed more than 30,000 confidential applications—thinking they were only forwarding 150. The data went outside government channels.
A super-injunction was initially slapped on the story to contain the fallout. Even the existence of the injunction was hidden. That has since been relaxed, allowing the media to reveal the scope of the exposure.
A further 2,400 Afghans are expected to be brought to the UK under the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR), a quietly launched emergency resettlement scheme that has already relocated 4,500 people. The cost? An estimated £850 million.
Despite official claims from the Taliban that they’ve neither arrested nor pursued those named, families on the ground tell a different story.
One Afghan told the BBC that efforts to locate their relative intensified after the leak. The danger is real—and immediate.
Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge issued an apology on behalf of the former Conservative-led government, under whose watch the breach remained buried.
A national embarrassment? Or a threat to national security? Many see it as both. And as details continue to unravel, public pressure on the Ministry of Defence is only set to grow.
