Secret US Military Emails Meant For Pentagon Got Redirected To Users In Mali Due To Simple Typos – News18

Over the past decade, millions of emails intended for the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense—were accidentally sent to email accounts in Mali due to typing errors.

According to CNN via Financial Times—owing to this oversight—several pieces of security sensitive information were revealed to users in the West African country of Mali.

In fact, the lapses were so severe that one of the sent emails contained the hotel room number for the US Army chief of staff, Gen. James McConville—when he was on a trip to Indonesia in May.

How It Happened?

The domain names for the Pentagon end in .MIL, while the domain .ML is used by the African country of Mali. Due to the similarity of the two domains and a number of typos over the past decade, numerous emails have been “accidentally” sent to users in Mali.

Later, this security breach was brought to light by Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch internet entrepreneur. He allegedly received the emails because his company was under contract to manage the .ML domain. Zuurbier claims to have raised the issue multiple times, including with the US Embassy in Mali.

Now that his contract to manage .ML domains has expired, the entrepreneur sought to spread awareness through social media. 

Pentagon’s Response

Sabrina Singh, the Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary, has confirmed that none of the leaked emails were sent from official Department of Defense email addresses. But as a precaution and a safeguarding measure, the department has blocked its email accounts from emailing .ml addresses to prevent future leaks.

She added that the emails were sent using personal accounts, such as Gmail or Yahoo, and that the department has always advised employees not to use personal email accounts for work-related matters.

“The Department of Defense (DoD) is aware of this issue and takes all unauthorized disclosures of Controlled National Security Information or Controlled Unclassified Information seriously,” Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman told CNN.