Millions of sensitive emails intended for USA military have reportedly been misdirected to Mali. The emails were mostly unclassified documents but contained sensitive information like medical records, passwords and itineraries of officials.
For over 10 years the emails according to a report from the Financial Times have been going to Mali, a country in West Africa due to typos in the ‘MIL domain’ of the USA military. People sometimes make errors in ‘MIL domain’ which is for USA military, and once it reads ML, the email gets directed to Mali by mistake. The ML is Mali’s country identifier.
In the report, the emails were largely noticed and intercepted by Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch entrepreneur who has been managing Mali’s domain. The system he set up was able to trap the misdirected emails. His contract to manage Mali’s domain is ending this month, raising great concerns that such emails could get to wrong hands once he is no longer in charge.
They are fears that once Mr Zuurbier leaves authorities in Mali will have access to such emails and could transmit such to Russia, which through Wagner Group have been increasing its presence in Mali and other African nations. Officials in the West believe that Russia is using the the Russian-backed paramilitary organization for its economic and political interests in Africa and other nations.
Although the USA military have spoken about significant steps taken by the USA military to mitigate such errors, these human errors have raised serious concerns and could be exploited by other competing nations.
ASVEK Science & Tech 