The British Ministry of Defense has leaked the email addresses of 250 Afghan interpreters when sending a mailing. In the message, the e-mail addresses of the other recipients were not protected. The interpreters are waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan.
In a statement to the BBC, the Ministry of Defense has apologized for the error. The email was sent to 250 interpreters who have worked for the UK government over the past few years. Some of them are currently in hiding in Afghanistan and the British Ministry of Defense is trying to evacuate them.
In a message to the interpreters, the e-mail addresses of all recipients have been copied. According to the ministry, some of the interpreters did not realize this and responded to the email with ‘reply all’. In doing so, a number of interpreters revealed details about their location and situation. The ministry then sent a second email asking the interpreters to delete the message.
It is probably a human error by an employee of the evacuation team at the Ministry of Defense. It is currently being investigated how this could have happened. The Ministry of Defense has advised all interpreters to use a different email address.
Interpreters, journalists and other collaborators who have worked together for the West fear for their safety now that the Taliban have taken power in Afghanistan. Although the Taliban previously announced that they did not want to retaliate, several reports have already come out that they are looking for opponents.
Google has already taken steps to block e-mail accounts of former government members after receiving reports that the Taliban were looking for data from the accounts. Facebook also took measures to make it easier for users in Afghanistan to protect their profiles.