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A whistleblower has disclosed the Afghan leak inquiry that the UK failed to secure confidential technology permitting the Taliban to locate local individuals who collaborated with western forces.

Data Breach Puts Thousands at Risk

The source, identified as Person A, testified that people concerned by the information breach were advised to relocate and change their phone numbers to protect themselves from militant forces.

MPs are currently examining the Conservative government's management of a massive breach of confidential data concerning nearly 19,000 individuals who had requested to come to Britain to flee the regime.

Data Disclosure Was Discovered

An electronic document including confidential details, such as identities, phone numbers and sometimes household data, was mistakenly released by an official working at British military command in February 2022.

The incident came to light only in August 2023, when details of several individuals who had requested to move to the UK appeared on online platforms.

Taliban Capabilities

“There seems to be a misunderstanding that militant forces are without comparable resources that allied forces use,” Person A informed lawmakers.

“We left it all behind in Afghanistan; they have it. If they have a contact number, they are able to track you down to within metres. That's precisely what the unit achieved.”

During testimony about if militant forces owned necessary encryption, the source declared: “They have complete capability.”

Consequences of the Information Leak

Initial findings provided to the inquiry estimated that no fewer than forty-nine family members and co-workers of people concerned by the breach had been murdered.

A legal restriction about the breach was implemented in August 2023 and restricted all details regarding the matter from media reporting until mid-2025.

Protective Actions

Given injunction limitations, the whistleblower and the volunteer organization she was working with informed affected households they were supporting that they had “concerns that somebody's phone had been intercepted”.

“Our suggestion was that they moved if they could and switched their phone numbers. These represented the crucial data that, should militant forces acquired such data, would cause identification and capture,” she said.

Contested Findings

The whistleblower disputed that internal investigation performed by a former official had been wrong to state that the obtaining of the information by the Taliban was “not significantly alter current risk levels”.

“The crucial point is that these individuals are not confronting militant forces; they live secretly. Everything boils down to past work history.”

Person A described terrible abuse experienced by at-risk Afghans, involving electric shock torture, waterboarding, and severe beatings.

“Instances include toddlers who have had bones crushed to try to get relatives to disclose hiding places,” she testified.