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According to Reuters, government databases and e-mails can provide detailed information about former government employees, contractors and allies.
According to a person familiar with the matter, Google temporarily locked an unknown number of Afghan government e-mail accounts because people are increasingly worried about the traces of digital files left by former officials and their international partners.
In the weeks since the Taliban quickly took over Afghanistan from a US-backed government, reports have highlighted that the new ruler may use biometrics and the Afghan wage database to hunt down enemies.
In a statement on Friday, Alphabet Inc’s Google did not confirm that the accounts of the Afghan government were locked, saying that the company was monitoring the situation in Afghanistan and “taking temporary actions to protect the accounts.”
An employee of the former government told Reuters that the Taliban were seeking to obtain emails from former officials.
At the end of last month, the employee said that the Taliban had asked him to keep the data on the departmental server where he had worked.
“If I do this, they will have access to the data and official communications of the former leaders,” the employee said.
The employee said he did not comply and has been hiding since. Out of concerns about his safety, Reuters did not disclose the identity of the man or his former department.
‘Information rich’
Public mail exchange records show that approximately two dozen Afghan government agencies use Google’s servers to process official emails, including the Ministry of Finance, Industry, Higher Education, and Mining. According to records, the Afghan Presidential Protocol Office and some local government agencies also use Google.
Occupying government databases and emails can provide information about former government employees, former ministers, government contractors, tribal allies, and foreign partners.
“This will provide a lot of information,” said Chad Anderson, a security researcher at Internet intelligence company DomainTools, who helped Reuters determine which departments run which email platform. “Even having a list of employees on Google Forms is a big problem,” he said, citing reports of retaliation against government workers.
Mail exchange records show that a number of Afghan government agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Palace, also use Microsoft’s e-mail service. But it is not clear what measures the software company is taking to prevent data from falling into the hands of the Taliban.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Anderson said that the Taliban’s attempt to control the digital infrastructure built by the United States deserves attention. He said the intelligence extracted from these infrastructures “may be more valuable to a fledgling government than old helicopters.”
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