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A confidential source has disclosed an official investigation that the UK failed to secure sensitive technology enabling Afghanistan's rulers to locate local individuals who collaborated with international military.

Data Breach Endangers Thousands at Risk

The source, identified as Person A, stated that individuals impacted by the security lapse were instructed to relocate and change their mobile numbers to avoid detection from the ruling authorities.

MPs are investigating the UK government's handling of a massive leak of confidential data concerning almost nineteen thousand Afghans who had applied to come to Britain to flee the Taliban.

How the Leak Happened

An electronic document containing their personal data, including names, addresses and in some cases family information, was inadvertently disclosed by a staff member employed at UK special forces headquarters in early 2022.

The leak came to light only in August 2023, when identities of multiple applicants who had requested to relocate to the UK were posted on online platforms.

Taliban Capabilities

“There seems to be this misconception that the Taliban do not have similar capabilities that we have,” Person A informed the committee.

Technology was deserted in Afghanistan; they possess it. If they have a contact number, they can trace your precise location. That is what specialized teams did.”

During testimony about whether the Taliban possessed advanced decryption, the source stated: “They have complete capability.”

Consequences of the Information Leak

Preliminary research presented to the inquiry estimated that no fewer than forty-nine kin and colleagues of Afghans affected by the leak had been executed.

A gag order concerning the leak was put in force in last year and restricted relevant facts about it from media reporting until mid-2025.

Safety Measures

Given injunction limitations, Person A and the aid group associated with informed individuals at risk they were working with that they had “concerns that mobile communications had been breached”.

“Our suggestion was that they moved if they could and switched their contact details. That constituted the crucial data that, if authorities acquired this information, would result in their location being found,” she said.

Disputed Conclusions

Person A argued that government assessment performed by a retired civil servant had been incorrect to state that the acquisition of the information by militant forces was “unlikely to substantially change present danger”.

“The crucial point is that affected people are not confronting the Taliban; they are in hiding. Everything boils down to former occupations.”

She detailed terrible abuse suffered by at-risk Afghans, involving electric shock torture, waterboarding, and severe beatings.

“We have had four-year-old children who have had their arms broken to pressure households to disclose hiding places,” she testified.