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An informant has told a parliamentary probe that the UK left behind sensitive technology enabling Afghanistan's rulers to track down local individuals who worked with international military.

Data Breach Endangers Thousands in Danger

The whistleblower, known as Person A, testified that individuals impacted by the security lapse were instructed to relocate and change their mobile numbers to protect themselves from the Taliban.

Members of Parliament are looking into official management of a serious leak of confidential data concerning almost nineteen thousand Afghans who had asked to relocate to the UK to flee the Taliban.

How the Leak Happened

A spreadsheet with their personal data, comprising names, phone numbers and occasionally household data, was inadvertently disclosed by a staff member employed at UK special forces headquarters in February 2022.

The breach became known months later, when the names of nine people who had requested to settle in Britain were posted on social media.

Taliban Capabilities

“There seems to be a misunderstanding that Afghan rulers lack comparable resources that allied forces use,” she told the committee.

Technology was deserted in Afghanistan; they possess it. Should they obtain mobile details, they are able to track you down to within metres. This is exactly how intelligence groups accomplished.”

Under inquiry about whether the Taliban owned necessary encryption, the source stated: “They have complete capability.”

Consequences of the Security Lapse

Preliminary research presented to the inquiry estimated that approximately fifty kin and colleagues of individuals impacted by the incident had been killed.

A gag order about the incident was put in force in August 2023 and blocked relevant facts concerning it from media reporting until July 2025.

Security Recommendations

Because she was restricted, the source and the volunteer organization she collaborated with told Afghan families they were assisting that they had “apprehensions that somebody's phone had been compromised”.

“We recommended that they change residence if they could and switched their mobile numbers. These represented the two main details that, if the Taliban obtained such data, would cause them being traced,” Person A explained.

Challenged Assessments

The whistleblower contested that internal investigation conducted by a retired civil servant had been mistaken to determine that the acquisition of the dataset by militant forces was “unlikely to substantially change present danger”.

“The thing to remember is that these individuals are in hiding from the authorities; they live secretly. All concerns relate to their previous employment.”

Person A described terrible treatment suffered by affected individuals, involving electrocution, waterboarding, and violent assaults.

“There are cases of toddlers who have had bones crushed to try to get households to say where someone is,” she testified.