Email Address Typo Misdirects Sensitive U.S. Military Information

The mishap occurred due to how similar Pentagon email addresses are to the domain for the African country.

Over the past decade, an abundance of emails meant to be sent to U.S. military personnel were accidentally sent to email accounts in Mali due to typos.

The misdirected emails included sensitive information including diplomatic documents, medical data, maps and photos of installations, as well as identity document information, passwords, tax returns, and hotel reservations for senior officers.

The mishap occurred due to how similar Pentagon email addresses are to the domain for the African country. The email traffic meant for the ‘.MIL’ domain were accidentally sent to the ‘.ML’ domain.

The situation became more urgent as the domain is expected to revert to Mali’s government. The Western African nation is an ally with Russia and will now be able to collect the mistakenly sent emails.