SAS names reportedly available online for a decade

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said the safety of personnel is of "paramount importance" after it was reported the identities of serving members of Britain's special forces were published online for more than a decade.

The Sunday Times reported that the security breach saw the names and ranks of at least 20 elite soldiers listed in documents that were publicly available online.

It is understood all sensitive personal information has been removed.

An MoD spokesperson said: "The safety of our personnel is of paramount importance, and we take data security extremely seriously. Where we become aware of any potential risk, we will always take immediate action."

BBC News has been told the very small number of personnel involved have been appropriately notified and protected.

The data breach was first reported by the Sunday Times, which found two publications associated with the British Army were inadvertently made public for more than a decade.

The documents - which were intended for members of the armed forces - were published online without password protection and contained details such as names and codenames used to refer to the special forces and their operations, it reported.

Although the paper said the documents did not explicitly reveal which units these soldiers belonged to, explanations of the codenames used are available online and known within military circles, meaning anyone could work out whether the named soldiers were either serving in or affiliated with an elite unit.

The newspaper reported that the publications were updated only a few months ago, suggesting that some of the soldiers named may have been engaged in live operations at the time.

It is the longstanding policy of successive governments not to comment on the activity of the Special Forces.

The special forces are regularly deployed to the most dangerous combat operations, and they include the Special Air Services (SAS) and the Royal Navy's Special Boat Service (SBS).