A passerby contacted police after stumbling across confidential military papers littering a British street in Newcastle, potentially helping the UK government avoid a “significant” threat.
Mike Gibbard was on his way to watch a soccer match earlier this month when he found a black bag spilling over with “official sensitive” government papers. The documents detailed how to access armories storing weapons and ammunition and soldiers’ ranks, emails, shift patterns and weapon issue details, the BBC reported.
“They could be easily identified through social media, they could potentially be coerced, they could be harassed,” Gary Hibberd, an information security consultant, told the outlet regarding the individuals named in the documents.
According to government guidance, the BBC reported the papers could have caused “moderate, short term damage” to the UK or its allied forces’ military operations. In extreme cases, it also could have led to “a threat to life.”
The documents were handed over to the Ministry of Defence, which is “looking into this urgently and the matter is the subject of an ongoing internal investigation,” according to a spokesperson for the government agency.
Government officials at Downing Street added that “appropriate action will be taken in response to any potential information breach.”
News of the mishap came just days after top Trump officials were accused of a possible security breach after a journalist was mistakenly added to a Signal group chat discussing upcoming military attack plans.
Originally published on Latin Times
