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A whistleblower has told a parliamentary probe that British authorities failed to secure classified technology allowing the militant group to track down local individuals who worked with western forces.

Information Leak Puts Thousands at Risk

The whistleblower, known as Person A, testified that Afghans affected by the data leak were advised to move homes and change their contact details to ensure their safety from the Taliban.

Lawmakers are investigating official management of a serious leak of confidential data affecting almost nineteen thousand Afghans who had requested to come to the UK to avoid the regime.

Data Disclosure Happened

A spreadsheet including their personal data, such as identities, contact details and in some cases relative details, was mistakenly released by a staff member working at special operations center in last year.

The leak became known in late 2023, when identities of several individuals who had sought to settle in the UK appeared on Facebook.

Militant Technology

It appears there is a false assumption that the Taliban are without the same sort of facilities that western nations possess,” she told the committee.

All equipment was abandoned in Afghanistan; they possess it. If they have mobile details, they can trace your precise location. That's precisely what intelligence groups did.”

Under inquiry about if militant forces owned sophisticated technology, the whistleblower stated: “They have complete capability.”

Consequences of the Information Leak

Preliminary research submitted to the committee estimated that approximately fifty kin and colleagues of people concerned by the breach had been executed.

A superinjunction about the incident was enacted in late 2023 and restricted relevant facts concerning it from public disclosure until mid-2025.

Security Recommendations

Due to legal constraints, the source and the volunteer organization she collaborated with told individuals at risk they were working with that they had “apprehensions that certain devices had been intercepted”.

“We recommended that they moved if they could and changed their mobile numbers. Those were the crucial data that, if the Taliban obtained these details, would result in them being traced,” the source testified.

Challenged Assessments

The source argued that government assessment carried out by a former official had been incorrect to determine that the acquisition of the dataset by the regime was “not significantly alter an individual's existing exposure”.

“The crucial point is that these individuals are in hiding from the authorities; they are in hiding. The primary issue involves their previous employment.”

Person A described terrible violence suffered by at-risk Afghans, comprising electric shock torture, simulated drowning, and physical abuse.

“There are cases of four-year-old children who have had bones crushed to try to get households to reveal locations,” the whistleblower revealed.