Taliban seizes personal data military spent years collecting -- which they can use now to hunt down Afghan allies' : report

On Tuesday, The Interceptreported that the Taliban has seized biometric devices with years' worth of data on Afghan fighters who helped the United States — increasing the urgency on U.S. forces to get these people to safety.

"The devices, known as HIIDE, for Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment, were seized last week during the Taliban's offensive, according to a Joint Special Operations Command official and three former U.S. military personnel, all of whom worried that sensitive data they contain could be used by the Taliban," reported Ken Klippenstein and Sara Sirota. "HIIDE devices contain identifying biometric data such as iris scans and fingerprints, as well as biographical information, and are used to access large centralized databases."

The sudden and rapid collapse of the Afghan government and takeover of the Taliban as U.S. forces have withdrawn from the country has put pressure on the Biden administration to do everything in its power to rescue people like interpreters who have assisted the U.S. as quickly as possible. Such people could be compromised by this release.

"An Army Special Operations veteran said it's possible that the Taliban may need additional tools to process the HIIDE data but expressed concerns that Pakistan would assist with this," continued the report. "'The Taliban doesn't have the gear to use the data but the ISI do,' the former Special Operations official said, referring to Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence. The ISI has been known to work closely with the Taliban."

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