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.

U.K. media reported that the names of more than 100 special forces troops, MI6 spies and military officers were part of the leak.

LONDON (Reuters) -Details of more than 100 British nationals including spies and special forces soldiers were included in one of the country's worst ever data breaches that led to thousands of Afghans being relocated to the UK,