On the face of it, the Afghan data breach is very bad indeed. It is arguably the worst leak of secret UK government names since the former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson went rogue and published a list online containing dozens of names of MI6 officers in 1999.

British spies, special forces soldiers and senior military personnel were among the tens of thousands of people potentially put at risk by the catastrophic Afghan data leak, The Independent understands.

The personal details of British spies and special forces personnel were included in the Afghan data breach that led to an unprecedented superinjunction, it has emerged. It was previously reported that a list accidentally sent in an insecure email by a military official contained information relating to almost 19,