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An informant has told an official investigation that the UK failed to secure sensitive devices enabling the Taliban to locate Afghans who worked with western forces.

Data Breach Endangers Numerous in Danger

The whistleblower, known as Person A, testified that Afghans affected by the security lapse were told to relocate and change their phone numbers to protect themselves from militant forces.

MPs are looking into official response of a serious leak of confidential data concerning approximately 19k Afghans who had applied to relocate to Britain to escape the regime.

How the Leak Occurred

A spreadsheet with their personal data, including names, addresses and occasionally household data, was accidentally leaked by an official employed at British military command in last year.

The breach was discovered months later, when identities of nine people who had applied to settle in the UK surfaced on online platforms.

Militant Technology

“There seems to be this misconception that militant forces do not have similar capabilities that we have,” the whistleblower testified to lawmakers.

“We left it all behind in Afghanistan; they possess it. If they have a contact number, they can trace your precise location. This is exactly how specialized teams did.”

During testimony about whether the Taliban owned necessary encryption, the source declared: “They've got everything.”

Impact of the Data Breach

Preliminary research submitted to the inquiry estimated that at least 49 kin and associates of people concerned by the incident had been murdered.

A gag order regarding the breach was put in force in August 2023 and prevented relevant facts regarding the matter from media reporting until mid-2025.

Protective Actions

Because she was restricted, Person A and the aid group associated with informed Afghan families they were working with that they had “concerns that mobile communications had been breached”.

“Our suggestion was that they relocate if they could and switched their mobile numbers. Those were the crucial data that, if the Taliban acquired this information, would cause identification and capture,” she said.

Contested Findings

Person A contested that government assessment carried out by a retired civil servant had been wrong to state that the acquisition of the records by militant forces was “unlikely to substantially change current risk levels”.

“The crucial point is that these individuals are not confronting militant forces; they remain concealed. All concerns relate to their previous employment.”

Person A described disturbing abuse experienced by affected individuals, involving electric shock torture, waterboarding, and physical abuse.

“There are cases of toddlers who have had limbs fractured to pressure relatives to say where someone is,” Person A stated.