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A confidential source has revealed the Afghan leak inquiry that British authorities abandoned classified technology enabling Afghanistan's rulers to locate local individuals who worked with western forces.

Data Breach Endangers Numerous at Risk

The whistleblower, called Person A, explained that individuals impacted by the security lapse were advised to move homes and change their contact details to avoid detection from the Taliban.

MPs are looking into the UK government's management of a serious breach of personal details affecting approximately 19k Afghans who had applied to move to Britain to escape the Taliban.

The Information Breach Was Discovered

A spreadsheet containing their personal data, comprising identities, contact details and in some cases family information, was mistakenly released by a worker employed at UK special forces headquarters in early 2022.

The leak became known in late 2023, when details of multiple applicants who had applied to settle in Britain appeared on social media.

Militant Technology

Many believe there's a false assumption that Afghan rulers are without comparable resources that allied forces use,” she told the committee.

All equipment was abandoned in Afghanistan; they have it. If they have mobile details, they can trace you down to within metres. That is what specialized teams did.”

When questioned about whether the Taliban had access to necessary encryption, the source confirmed: “They've got everything.”

Impact of the Data Breach

Initial findings submitted to the inquiry estimated that approximately fifty relatives and colleagues of individuals impacted by the breach had been killed.

A superinjunction concerning the leak was put in force in August 2023 and prevented any information regarding the matter from being made public until July 2025.

Safety Measures

Given injunction limitations, Person A and the non-governmental organization she was working with informed Afghan families they were supporting that they had “suspicions that certain devices had been breached”.

“We recommended that they moved if they could and switched their contact details. Those were the primary information that, if authorities acquired such data, would lead to identification and capture,” Person A explained.

Challenged Assessments

The whistleblower contested that an official review carried out by a retired civil servant had been wrong to determine that the obtaining of the dataset by the Taliban was “unlikely to substantially change an individual's existing exposure”.

“The crucial point is that these Afghans are not standing up to the Taliban; they live secretly. The primary issue involves past work history.”

Person A described terrible abuse suffered by concerned people, comprising electric shock torture, simulated drowning, and physical abuse.

“We have had toddlers who have had their arms broken to pressure households to disclose hiding places,” Person A stated.