Beatings, killings, and lasting fear: The human toll of MoD's Afghan data breach Research submitted to the UK Parliament has revealed explicit threats to life and the deaths of family members and colleagues directly linked to the Ministry of Defence's 2022 Afghan relocation scheme data breach. Led by charity Refugee Legal Support and assisted by academics from Lancaster and York universities, of the 231 …
What's equally troubling is that the arseholes of MoD (a) should already know all there is to know about keeping stuff secret, and (b) had already been fined for the previous DP breach.
And despite those aggravating circumstances, has anybody senior been held to account? Of course not.
should already know all there is to know about keeping stuff secret
You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment.
The main thing to remember is that, like most businesses, the people using the IT tech are not IT experts - I'm sure we've all laughed at the anecdotes of "really clever people" (e.g. university Phds) who can't manage basic IT tasks. And automating security is really hard, so largely relies on people doing the right thing. I could write a whole essay on how the people responsible for the IT don't or can't give non-technical users meaningful guidance on various stuff - for example, you wouldn't believe how complicated it is to work out what you can and can't do with Teams.
And then there's the problem that security and usability are often conflicting. So, for example, you can put limits on how many email addresses can be in an email before it's blocked - but then people find they can't get email invites out for large meetings.
Perhaps worth bearing in mind how this debacle unfolded.
Feb 2022 a British soldier (marine I think) in the UK who was working with several Afgans in Afganistan to establish who was eligible for asylum in the UK mailed them a spreadsheet that contained more information than he/she realised. One of those Afgans then decided to try to blackmail the UK by threatening to give the spreadsheet to the Afgan Govt - the Taliban. I don't think it's public knowledge whether the UK gave into the blackmail or not, but what did happen was the Afgan blackmailer did in fact gave the Tailban the spreadsheet.
What then happened was at cabinet level it was decided to import all 24,000 Afgan soldiers named on the spreadsheet. Cabinet also decided it's to be done in complete secrecy and a superinjunction got slapped on the whole thing. Then Lab takes office and they decide to continue with the superinjunction. Word only finally gets out about what is happening when in Jul 2025 after years of legal wrangling by several newspapers, the superinjuction is killed by the courts.
It then turns out total numbers of Afgans brought in under the secret scheme is now well above 120,000 and still climbing. And to house many of them, British soldiers have been evicted from MOD housing.
Now what would have been better all round would have been for the UK to pay an annual danegeld to the Afgan Govt to ensure the safety of everyone on the spreadsheet. Would have been far cheaper the us and far better for the Afgans.
The report the El Reg article is based on is by a refugee legal support charity. Biased or what. It'll be more worthwhile when we get an official & independent report - though quite likely that will need a change of government for that to happen so deeply are the last Con and current Lab govts immersed in the mess.
And a few weeks ago it was reported that the Afgan Govt is doing a healthy trade in selling for a small fee an "official govt death threat" which purchasers then use to claim sanctuary in the UK.
And of course, the usual specialist compensation legal firms are now preparing cases against the UK govt because their clients have been traumatised.
And the Afgan blackmailer? Well, we gave him asylum just the same.
And so far as I know, no UK official/politician/soldier or anyone, especially not Ben Wallace the MOD SoS at the time, has been punished over this.
Utterly utterly useless, the lot of 'em - previous Govt & present Govt.
Remember 1688.
Quote: ".....Utterly utterly useless....."
Yup....it goes back A LONG WAY.........................
1840: Brits thrown out of Afghanistan
1880: Brits (again) thrown out of Afghanistan
1987: Russians thrown out of Afghanistan
.....until August 20, 2021: Brits and Americans thrown out of Afghanistan.
.....and the beat goes on............
So.....the "utterly utterly useless" politicians have been "utterly utterly useless" for quite a while!
Quote (George Santayana): "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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