Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Sep 01, 2025

Ministry of Defence secrets exposed by people sending files to personal email accounts, documents show

Ministry of Defence secrets exposed by people sending files to personal email accounts, documents show

There were a record number of security incidents across the UK defence industry last year, heavily redacted documents reveal.

Secret information belonging to the Ministry of Defence was exposed to hostile states when it was transferred from secure networks to personal email accounts, Sky News has learnt.

Although documents obtained by Sky News were redacted to obscure the nature of the secret information, they reveal a record number of security breaches in 2020 originating from the British military's private sector partners.

The rising number of security incidents raises questions about the UK's resilience to foreign espionage ahead of the government unveiling its Integrated Review on Tuesday, which will set out the strategic direction of Britain's defence and security apparatus.


The redacted documents show that a total of 151 incidents were filed with the MoD's defence industry Warning, Advice and Reporting Point (WARP) in 2020, compared with just 75 in 2019.

"Every government contractor that processes MOD information is obliged to report security incidents to the Defence Industry WARP," explains a new page on gov.uk published last month.

Although the substance and outcome of these incidents is obscured, many of the records in the documents obtained by Sky News are followed by multiple paragraphs of redacted explanation, including numerous incidents when information was sent to personal email accounts."

Hostile states are known to target the personal email accounts of politicians and defence officials. Russian hackers allegedly stole secret trade deal papers from the personal email account of then cabinet minister Liam Fox ahead of the 2019 election.

The most extensive report, filed on 1 May 2020, runs several pages long and related to "data sent to unauthorised domain" - potentially indicating a phishing attack.

Two incidents in April were considered so sensitive that even the dates they occurred on were redacted.

Other incidents include potential compromises to MoD owned systems, a breach of a perimeter fence at an undisclosed location, infrastructure being misconfigured, and in one case missile containers being available for sale.

A spokesperson for the MoD said: "The MoD takes the security of its personnel, systems and establishments very seriously and continually seek to improve security incident reporting.

"We have recently introduced policy, processes and tools to make internal and external reporting easier and more efficient, and the increase in reports can be largely attributed to these improvements."

The incidents raise questions about the UK's resilience to cyber spies.


Cyber attacks reported to the MoD and to the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, a part of GCHQ, are not referred to other regulators as a matter of course.

Businesses within the defence sector that lose personal data in a cyber attack are obliged to inform the data regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office, but this is not the case if non-personal state secrets are compromised.

Publicly listed companies are expected to inform the Financial Conduct Authority about any material incidents, including cyber attacks, whether personal data is lost or not.

The government's long-awaited Integrated Review - billed as the most significant strategic overhaul of the UK's foreign, defence, security and aid policy since the Cold War - is due to be launched on Tuesday.

In a sign of the likely political clashes ahead, the Conservative chair of the Defence Select Committee, Tobias Ellwood, warned ministers not to overlook the need to bolster existing military capabilities, telling Sky News: "We drop our guard on the conventional side at our peril."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×