UK Accidentally Sends Mali Report on Hypersonic Weapons Development

The UK Ministry of Defence has mistakenly sent emails containing confidential information to Mali amid strengthening ties between Bamako and Moscow. According to The Times, the UK's military department has initiated an internal review due to the disclosed information.

As reported, while maintaining connections with Pentagon partners, the UK Ministry of Defence accidentally sent emails using the .ml domain, Mali's identifier, instead of the .mil domain, which is typically used for correspondence through US defense entities. The publication clarified that most of the emails did not contain information posing a threat to the UK's security but rather included details regarding vacations of staff members from the Ministry of Defence or the Foreign Office. However, the mistakenly sent emails contained some correspondence with detailed descriptions of British research on hypersonic weapons, The Times added.

On July 17, the Financial Times reported that hundreds of thousands of US military emails were mistakenly sent to Mali due to a domain error, some of which contained sensitive information about personnel. The Pentagon has stated that it is aware of the situation and takes “the unauthorized leaking of both national security intelligence and controlled unclassified information very seriously.” US Department of Defense spokesperson, Deputy Commander Tim Gorman, noted that messages accidentally sent from the .mil domain to Mali have been blocked, and the sender is notified to verify the intended recipients' email addresses.