For over 10 years, millions of emails associated with the US military have been getting sent to Mali, a West African country allied with Russia, due to a typo, according to a report from the Financial Times.

According to the report, a misspelling of “.MIL” in the suffix of military email addresses as “.ML” — the country domain for Mali — unintentionally led to a “typo leak”. As a result, everything from diplomatic documents, tax returns, passwords, and travel details of top officers has been exposed, the outlet noted.

A Dutch entrepreneur named Johannes Zuurbier brought this to notice that such a mistake "has been happening for over a decade despite his repeated attempts to warn the US government”. 

The Amsterdam-based entrepreneur approached a senior adviser to the US national cyber security service and even White House officials to inform them about the mistake. In July, he sent a letter saying, “This risk is real and could be exploited by adversaries of the US.”

117,000 misdirected emails have apparently been collected by Zuurbier since January alone; several of these emails contain critical data pertaining to the US military.

It was claimed that a number of these emails contained tax records, lists of ship crews, tax information, lists of military base staff, images of military bases, reports of naval inspections, medical records, identity document information, and more. None of the emails are said to be classified.

Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman told Military Times via email the department “is aware” of the issue and “takes all unauthorized disclosures of Controlled National Security Information or Controlled Unclassified Information seriously.”

Meanwhile, Zuurbier’s 10-year contract with Mali ended on Monday and authorities will now be able to gain access to the emails.

Image source: Military Times