U.K. nuclear secrets uncovered using ‘copy and paste’ - thestar.com

Elizabeth Haggarty Toronto Star

British military secrets are available to all those with access to the high-tech code breaking tool copy and paste.

Last week the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence suffered an embarrassment when a redacted report on the country’s nuclear submarines was published online. Only instead of hiding classified information, the blacked-out sections could be read by anyone who cut and paste the text into another document.

The report, on a future generation of nuclear submarines, was posted to the U.K. parliament’s website following a Freedom of Information request by anti-nuclear campaigners.

But more was revealed than originally intended when staff overlaid classified sections of the text with black bars instead of ensuring the text’s proper removal.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, a former Army officer, told the Guardian the leak was “potentially catastrophic,” with the details “hugely interesting” to the U.K.’s enemies.

The copy-and-pasted version of the text reportedly offered expert opinions on the Trident fleet’s capacity to withstand catastrophic accidents, including the ability of a lone rogue sailor to cause a nuclear meltdown in a vessel.

Peppered with entire paragraphs that were supposed to be blacked out, the declassified documents also detailed the U.S. navy’s ability to protect its own submarines.

The exact information contained in the report is unknown as the Daily Star, who uncovered the mess up, gave the ministry time to properly hide the offending text before running its story.