Google blocks Afghan government accounts amid hacking threat

Google has temporarily locked down an unspecified number of Afghan government email accounts, as fears grow over the digital paper trail left by former officials and their international partners, Report informs referring to Reuters.

In the weeks since the Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan from a US-backed government, reports have highlighted how biometric and Afghan payroll databases might be exploited by the new rulers to hunt their enemies.

Alphabet Inc’s Google (GOOGL.O) stopped short of confirming that Afghan government accounts were being locked down, saying that the company was monitoring the situation in Afghanistan and ‘taking temporary actions to secure relevant accounts.’

Publicly available mail exchanger records show that some two dozen Afghan government bodies used Google’s servers to handle official emails, including the ministries of finance, industry, higher education, and mines. According to the records, Afghanistan’s office of the presidential protocol also used Google, as did some local government bodies.

Commandeering government databases and emails could provide information about employees of the former administration, ex-ministers, government contractors, tribal allies, and foreign partners.