US military emails were sent to Russia’s ally by mistake, due to a tiny typing error, the mails were transmitted to Mali.
For years, emails meant for the US military’s “.mil” domain have been routed to the West African country with the “.ml” extension.
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Some of the emails allegedly contained sensitive information such as passwords, medical records, and high officers’ travel plans.
The Pentagon stated that it had taken steps to fix the problem.
None were tagged as classified, but they included medical data, maps of US military bases, financial records, and planning documents for official trips, as well as some diplomatic letters, according to the newspaper.
This month, Mr Zuurbier issued a letter to US officials to raise the alarm. He stated that his contract with the Mali government was about to expire, implying that “the risk is real and could be exploited by US adversaries.”
On Monday, Mali’s military administration was set to take control of the domain.
According to current and former US officials, “classified” and “top secret” US military communications are routed through separate IT networks, making it unlikely that they will be accidentally compromised.
However, according to Steven Stransky, a lawyer who previously served as senior counsel to the Department of Homeland Security’s Intelligence Law Division, even seemingly innocuous material can be beneficial to US adversaries, particularly terrorists.
“Those kinds of communications would imply that a foreign actor could begin compiling dossiers on our own military personnel for espionage purposes, or could try to persuade them to reveal information in exchange for financial benefit,” Mr Stransky explained.
“It’s information that a foreign government could use.”
Lee McKnight, a Syracuse University professor of information studies, believes the US military was lucky that the issue was brought to its attention and that the emails were directed to a domain used by Mali’s government rather than cyber criminals.
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He went on to say that “typo-squatting” – a sort of cybercrime that targets individuals who misspell an internet domain is rampant.
They are hoping that someone would make a mistake and that they will be able to entice you.
