Chaos as fresh data breach leaks names of Special Forces soldiers - as inquiry launched
The army has launched an investigation after it emerged that names of SAS personnel had been publicly available online for a decade.
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It comes as a list containing the names thousands of Afghans seeking sanctuary in the UK, as well as those of SAS members and MI6 operatives, was accidentally leaked.
LBC reported this week the Government spent two years using an unprecedented superinjunction to prevent the public from learning about the mishap.
Now, an in-house publication from the Grenadier Guards - the most senior infantry regiment in the British Army - included the names and deployments of its most senior officers, which were publicly available online for a decade, The Times has reported.
The latest edition of the publication, published last year and available online, included the names of ten men in the regiment next to the codename "MAB", shorthand for MoD A Block, the site of the UK Special Forces headquarters at the Regent’s Park Barracks in London.
The codename is easy to find online and well-known in the military, making it easy for terrorists or hostile states to deduce that the soldiers were either part of or connected to an elite unit.
General Sir Roly Walker, the head of the army, said: “The security of our people is of the utmost importance and we take any breach extremely seriously.
"I have directed an immediate review into our data sharing arrangements with our regimental and corps associations to ensure appropriate guidance and safeguards are in place to best support the vital work they do.”
Read more: How the UK silenced a scandal: My two year battle to reveal the truth by Lewis Goodall
Read more: Afghans named in MoD data leak are unlikely to receive any compensation
'Furious'
John Healey, the defence secretary, is said to be “furious” about the breach.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said action has been taken to remove sensitive personal information from the website and that personnel involved have been notified and protected.
The MoD said that direction was issued in April to ensure that the information was removed, and that while the majority was removed, some information remained. The information is no longer available on the website, and hard copies of the publication will no longer be sold.
The Times reported in April that identities of serving members of the Special Forces had been inadvertently published online for more than a decade by two publications associated with the British Army, but withheld details about the publications to protect soldiers. Another regiment removed similar publications from the public domain, but the Guards failed to do so. The information was deleted after the MoD was contacted again on Friday.
The 2024 internal publication from the Guards also included details about Guards assigned to the Cabinet Office’s National Security Secretariat, a team of military and intelligence staff who advise the prime minister. A soldier who served within the personal team of General Walker was also named.
The document with the information is created by the Grenadier Guards Regimental Association, a charitable enterprise made up of former service members. These associations are regularly provided with details about active personnel and the activities of relevant regiments to support their work.
The breach follows the revelation earlier this week that a list containing the names thousands of Afghans seeking sanctuary in the UK, as well as those of SAS members and MI6 operatives, was accidentally leaked.
The government used a super injunction, the first of its kind, to keep the information secret. The super injunction prevented the media from reporting that a dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) was released “in error” in February 2022 by a defence official.
The MoD sought and was granted a contra mundum superinjunction — a rare legal order that not only barred publication of the story but also prevented anyone from revealing that an injunction even existed. In court, it was described as “constitutionally unprecedented”.
The super injunction was lifted on Tuesday. Defence Secretary John Healey offered a "sincere apology" for the breach in the Commons, adding the MoD has "installed new software to securely share data".