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A confidential source has told the Afghan leak inquiry that British authorities left behind sensitive technology allowing the militant group to locate local individuals that had served with western forces.

Data Breach Endangers Thousands at Risk

Person A, called Person A, explained that Afghans affected by the security lapse were instructed to relocate and switch their contact details to ensure their safety from the Taliban.

Members of Parliament are investigating the UK government's response of a catastrophic leak of private information concerning nearly 19,000 Afghans who had asked to move to the UK to flee the regime.

Data Disclosure Occurred

A spreadsheet with confidential details, including names, phone numbers and occasionally relative details, was accidentally leaked by a staff member employed at special operations center in early 2022.

The breach was discovered only in August 2023, when details of nine people who had sought to relocate to the UK were posted on social media.

Regime's Resources

“There seems to be this misconception that the Taliban lack similar capabilities that we have,” the whistleblower testified to the committee.

Technology was deserted in Afghanistan; they possess it. Should they obtain your phone number, they can locate you down to within metres. This is exactly how intelligence groups accomplished.”

When questioned about whether the Taliban possessed necessary encryption, Person A declared: “They've got everything.”

Impact of the Security Lapse

Preliminary research submitted to the committee estimated that approximately fifty family members and colleagues of people concerned by the leak had been killed.

A superinjunction concerning the leak was implemented in last year and blocked all details concerning it from public disclosure until July 2025.

Safety Measures

Because she was restricted, Person A and the volunteer organization she was working with informed affected households they were assisting that they had “apprehensions that certain devices had been intercepted”.

“We recommended that they relocate if they could and changed their mobile numbers. These represented the crucial data that, if authorities had access to such data, would cause them being traced,” she said.

Disputed Conclusions

Person A disputed that government assessment carried out by a former official had been wrong to state that the acquisition of the dataset by the regime was “unlikely to substantially change an individual's existing exposure”.

“The crucial point is that affected people are not standing up to the Taliban; they remain concealed. All concerns relate to former occupations.”

The source explained disturbing violence suffered by at-risk Afghans, involving electrocution, interrogation techniques, and physical abuse.

“Instances include toddlers who have had bones crushed to pressure the family to reveal locations,” Person A stated.