The emails are intended for the military's .MIL domain, but they have been misdirected to .ML, the country identifier for Mali

Over 100,000 U.S. military emails have been misdirected to Mali this year due to a spelling mistake that sent emails to .ML instead of .MIL addresses. The emails contain sensitive information about personnel, travel plans, and financial records. While not classified, the data could provide intelligence value if exploited. Control of the .ML domain is transferring to the Malian government which has ties to Russia, raising concerns the misdirected emails could be used to their advantage. The Pentagon says it is aware of the issue and blocking emails from leaving the .MIL domain, but mistakes still happen.

  • Gork@beehaw.org
    6·
    1 year ago

    So… when will there be PowerPoints and training that will now be required as a result of this incident? Now DoD employees will have to sit through yet another hour-long presentation about how to not make spelling mistakes lol.

    • megopie@beehaw.org
      3·
      1 year ago

      “ So if you remember this contrived acronym , you won’t accidentally write e-mali instead of e-mail”

    • elfpie@beehaw.org
      1·
      1 year ago

      The fact treason is as easy as a spelling mistake is worrisome. Don’t trust users not to shoot themselves in the foot.

  • SugarApplePie@beehaw.orgEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    Emails sent from the .MIL domain to the .ML addresses “are blocked before they leave the .mil domain and the sender is notified that they must validate the email addresses of the intended recipients," Gorman said.

    So they aren’t actually making it to the .ml addresses? I can’t tell if I’m not understanding something properly or someone is lying or what

    • middlemuddle@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      That’s only for emails sent from the .mil domain. Emails sent from other domains don’t have the same filters in place. The issue is that plenty of other domains are attempting to send emails to the .mil domain and are actually sending to the .ml domain. The article only confirms a filter is in place for .mil users, so it’s entirely possible that .gov users have no such filter. Plenty of government workers with .gov domains would be trying to send sensitive info to .mil users. Or government contractors, who would have a whole bunch of possible domains, would be trying to send to the .mil domain and failing.

      It’s a pretty big, and stupid, breach, but I’m not sure how you get everyone who’s not part of your closed system to ensure they’re typing out .mil correctly.