Google temporarily locked an unknown number Afghanistan According to a person familiar with the matter, the government’s e-mail accounts are increasingly worried about the traces of digital documents left by former officials and their international partners.
In the weeks since Taliban As the US-backed government quickly takes over Afghanistan, reports have highlighted that the new ruler may use biometrics and Afghan payrolls 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 security of related 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 asked him to keep the data on the departmental server where he had worked.
“If I do this, then they will get data and official communications from 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.
Public mail exchange records show that about two dozen Afghan government agencies use Google’s servers to process official emails, including the Ministry of Finance, Industry, Higher Education, and Mining. Records show that 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 the Google worksheet 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.” (Reporting by Rafael Sartre; Editing by Grant McCool)
