Pentagon has sent millions of confidential e-mails to accounts in Mali for a decade due to typo

[Woody]

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/17/politics/email-typos-mali-military-emails/index.html

Common typo causes millions of emails intended for members of the US military to be sent to accounts in Mali

Millions of emails intended for Pentagon employees were inadvertently sent to email accounts in Mali over the last decade because of typos caused by the similarity of the US military’s email address and the domain for the West African country, according to a Dutch technologist who discovered the problem.

In some cases, sensitive information like hotel reservations for senior US military officials were revealed.

The emails were intended for owners of “.MIL” email accounts – the internet domain owned by the US military – but because of typos they were instead sent to the .ML domain, which handles email accounts in the West African country of Mali

Johannes “Joost” Zuurbier, a Dutch internet entrepreneur, received the emails because his company was contracted to manage the .ML domain. Since 2013, Zuurbier said, he has raised the issue with various US officials, including the US Embassy in Mali earlier this year.

One of the misdirected emails contained hotel room numbers for the Army chief of staff, Gen. James McConville, and his entourage on a trip they took in May to Indonesia.

One email in Zuurbier’s stash is from an FBI agent and intended for a US Navy official, asking for personal information to process a Navy visitor to an FBI facility. The FBI agent uses the .ml domain.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

youch, that's some insane incompetence. If it were for a month before they caught the issue I could get it maybe because it's 1 letter difference (still wouldn't be acceptable and the ones responsible should be fired in that case too) but for 10 YEARS?? How the hell does no one notice??