Hundreds of thousands of sensitive US military documents went to Mali, Russia’s ally, due to a typo while sending an email.
The BBC reported that these emails contain passwords of top US military officials, medical reports, maps of military installations, financial records, government travel and other diplomatic documents.
According to news, the US Army has been using the ‘.mil’ domain for sending emails for a long time. But these mails went to Mali due to the mistake of not putting ‘i’ while sending the mail. Because ‘.ml’ domain is being used by Mali.
This issue was first brought forward by the Financial Times. According to the media, 10 years ago, Dutch internet entrepreneur Johannes Zerbier identified this issue. He even sent a letter to the US officials expressing concern about it.
Zerbier has been working with Mali’s domain management since 2013. However, his contract with the government of Mali is about to expire. The Malian government was supposed to take control of the domain on Monday. Therefore, it could be a risk factor for the United States. Even enemy states can use this information against the United States. US military headquarters Pentagon said that steps have been taken to solve this problem. The US Department of Defense says the same. They also said that steps have been taken so that the mail does not go to the wrong domain.