THE Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been fined £350,000 for an “egregious” data breach that exposed the personal information of Afghan nationals seeking to flee to Britain after the Taliban takeover.

Details belonging to 265 people were mistakenly copied into emails sent by the government, meaning they could be seen by all recipients, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found.

This could have led to a “threat to life” if the data disclosed fell into the hands of the Taliban, the data watchdog said.