**Parliament Investigates Significant Afghan Data Security Breach**

**The UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee launches an inquiry into a major data breach affecting the safety of Afghan allies and military personnel.**

Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has initiated a comprehensive inquiry following a substantial data breach that has potentially compromised the identities of thousands of Afghan allies and British military officials. This breach has raised serious concerns, prompting a super-injunction that delayed the ISC's thorough review until the previous week.

Chairman Lord Beamish emphasized the need for immediate access to all related intelligence documents in response to these serious concerns surrounding constitutional implications. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has publicly supported the ISC's investigative efforts into the incident. The ISC's role includes oversight of MI5, MI6, and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

In a statement released on Monday, Lord Beamish affirmed that the ISC would pursue an inquiry focused on the intelligence community’s involvement concerning the data leak after evaluating defense assessments pertinent to the occurrence. He previously expressed deep concern regarding the "serious constitutional issues" tied to how this breach was managed, which had gone undetected for over a year before any legal intervention was sought.

The ISC argues that, under the Justice and Security Act 2013, classification is not a valid reason to withhold information from their scrutiny, highlighting the necessity of transparency regarding the UK intelligence community's operations. An MoD spokesman acknowledged the urgent need to pinpoint accountability for the previous government's failure to manage this situation effectively.

The incident originated in February 2022 when an employee at the UK Special Forces headquarters accidentally emailed a spreadsheet containing over 30,000 resettlement applications to an unauthorized recipient, mistaking it for information on only 150 individuals. The breach came to light in August 2023, spurred by a Facebook post from a man in Afghanistan that implicated nine individuals and threatened to disclose further identities, which government sources referred to as "essentially blackmail."

Consequently, the MoD sought a gagging order in September 2023, fearing that nearly 19,000 Afghans, who had previously collaborated with British forces, could face backlash from the Taliban as a result. The High Court placed a strict super-injunction, prohibiting any disclosures regarding the gag order until a judge lifted it last week.

This data breach compelled the government to establish the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR), aiming to relocate around 7,000 threatened individuals to the UK at an estimated cost of £850 million. The MoD has stated that it will strongly defend any legal claims or compensation requests, referring to them as "hypothetical" and has not indicated plans to proactively offer compensation to those affected.

The implications of the Afghan data breach continue to raise questions about the effectiveness of intelligence operations and the protection of informants in high-risk environments.