Worried About Leaking Information To The Taliban, Google Locks Afghan Government Emails

JAKARTA - Google has temporarily locked down a number of email accounts belonging to the Afghan government to address concerns about digital files being left behind by former government officials.

In a written statement, Google confirmed the Afghan government's accounts were locked and they were monitoring the situation in the country while "taking interim measures to secure relevant accounts".

One former government employee said the Taliban were trying to take away the email accounts of former officials. The undisclosed source said last month that the Taliban had asked him to keep data stored at the ministry where he used to work.

Since the Afghan government fell to the Taliban, there have been concerns that biometric databases might be exploited to locate their enemy.

A publicly available correspondence track record shows dozens of Afghan government agencies using Google-owned servers for official e-mail, including the Ministry of Finance, Industry, Higher Education, and Mines.

Afghanistan's presidential protocol also uses Google, as do a number of local governments.

Mastering government databases and email can reveal information about employees in previous governments, former ministers, government contractors, tribal allies to foreign partners.

The public track record also shows a number of government agencies using email services from Microsoft Corp. The company declined to provide information about what steps they took.