A major Ministry of Defence (MoD) data breach has exposed the identities of over 100 British nationals—including MI6 operatives, SAS soldiers and special forces personnel—after their details were mistakenly included in a leaked spreadsheet linked to Afghan resettlement efforts.
The confidential data was part of a wider release involving nearly 19,000 individuals who applied for relocation to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
Defence insiders revealed that British personnel had endorsed many of the Afghan applicants, inadvertently adding their own sensitive information to the leaked files.
The breach occurred in February 2022 when a defence official accidentally shared the spreadsheet.
Shockingly, the error went undetected for more than a year until excerpts were posted anonymously in a private Facebook group in August 2023, raising serious questions over data handling and internal oversight within the department.
The leaked documents contained names, contact details, and—in many cases—the identities of applicants’ family members.
A limited number of entries also referenced members of parliament, senior military leaders, and government officials who supported relocation applications.
On Tuesday, following the lifting of a super injunction by a high court judge, Defence Secretary John Healey publicly apologised for the data breach.
Addressing Parliament later in the day, he admitted the spreadsheet included highly sensitive information and described the incident as a “serious departmental error”.
Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge also issued an apology on behalf of the previous Conservative administration, under which both the original leak and its delayed discovery occurred.
Cartlidge further questioned Healey regarding reports that a second individual—not responsible for the original leak—may have attempted to exploit the data for blackmail.
This unprecedented security lapse has triggered renewed calls for a full investigation into how such sensitive material could have been mishandled—and why it remained undetected for so long.
