Military and MOD need more digital experts to prevent future data breaches, PAC chair says
The MOD and military must invest in more digital specialists, including at senior levels, to tackle the risk of further data breaches akin to the recent Afghan data debacle, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee has said.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown was speaking to BFBS Forces News ahead of the publication of a new report by the PAC, which criticises the MOD for not doing enough to reduce the risk of further incidents and failing to learn the lessons of previous breaches.
The details of around 19,000 Afghans seeking safety in the UK after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan were accidentally leaked by a defence official in 2022. The extent of the breach only became publicly known this year after the lifting of a superinjunction.
The PAC also found that the MOD was "inappropriately" using Excel spreadsheets on a SharePoint site amid the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
"Most departments in the last spending review were given money specifically provided to update their systems," Sir Geoffrey explained.
"The MOD will not have been exempt from this, and they must take this data breach very seriously now and start updating their system, because here we have a data breach of mainly Afghans, but not exclusively Afghans.
"We know there was a data breach last year of some of our military personnel, and we need to have systems in place that are much more resistant to both internal mistakes, self-inflicted mistakes and external cyber attacks."
Sir Geoffrey also highlighted the shortage of digital specialists within the MOD and called for greater recruitment of these individuals across government to ensure data security.
The data breach's cost, which has been linked to the deaths of 49 Afghans by recent academic research and put thousands of others at risk of reprisal from the Taliban, is currently estimated at around £850m. This excludes legal and potential compensation costs.
"As we said in the hearing, this could run into billions of pounds, both of the costs of bringing them [Afghans] here and compensation", Sir Geoffrey said.
"We're not anticipating that will be the case. But you did ask me what the worst-case scenario is."
The committee has asked for a six-monthly update on resettlement activity and accurate costings relating to the breach.
Alongside the report, the PAC's chair has written to the MOD's permanent secretary, expressing its disappointment at how frequently the MOD failed to provide requested information.
Additional reporting by Tom Sables.
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