A lack of attention that could have cost the United States dearly. For ten years, a small typing error has slipped into millions of emails sent by the American army. A simple forgotten letter: some employees typed “.ML” instead of “.MIL” for the suffix of their recipient’s email address. Result: these messages arrived… in Mali.
While most of the documents remain irrelevant, some are sensitive: travels of high-ranking officers with many details, medical information, identity documents, briefing notes on threats against US interests in the stranger from the FBI… The worst part of it all? The higher authorities had known about it for about a decade, according to the Financial Times.
A Dutch entrepreneur, administrator of the national domain of Mali, has indeed tried several times to join the American staff, but the leaks have continued. While he had given up compiling these emails for a few years, Johannes Zuurbier started again in January. In total, 117,000 letters received since January, including a thousand in one day, last Wednesday.
So the entrepreneur raised his voice in concern, sending a letter to the government, warning, “This risk is real and could be exploited by adversaries of the United States. ” And for good reason. Johannes Zuurbier’s contract ended on Monday, July 17. Control of the “.ML” domain is now directly managed by the Malian government, an ally of Russia. With this recipient error, Bamako could therefore glean valuable information…
Still, this is not the first leak for the American general staff: last April, it had already been shaken by a similar affair.