Moscow’s fear of Islamic radicalism in Afghanistan had turned enemies into friends. Russian soldiers, who still control that country’s borders, had checked my visas and warmly slapped some of the Afghans on their backs. My trip began in the ex-Soviet Republic of Tajikistan. I wanted to talk to Mas‘ud’s front-line soldiers who had fought the Taliban and their Arab auxiliaries, as well as to the prisoners of war Mas‘ud had collected. My goal was to visit Ahmad Shah Mas‘ud, the military commander of northeastern Afghanistan, travel to the front line between him and the Taliban, and if possible, reach the outskirts of the Taliban and Islamist Arab training camps north of Kabul. Given the impasse of going through the south, I tried the somewhat novel idea of approaching Usama bin Ladin’s training camps from the north. From there, they try to gain access into southern Afghanistan where they inevitably confront the tight-knit Taliban and Islamist Arab circles which surround America’s most-wanted terrorist. Maybe we need the first law of data: no one can hold data that could threaten lives if it gets into the wrong hands.Most journalists and American officials who want to see what Usama bin Ladin is doing make trips that begin in Islamabad, Pakistan, and then go to the gateway city of Peshawar. The more data you control, the greater the vulnerability.Īsimov’s created the three laws of robotics - in fiction. But the big problem here is that the security services themselves can be hacked.ĭata is a double-edged weapon - it can be used to support security but can be used against you. You may or may not feel comfortable with security services holding data on private citizens for their use. The vulnerability, called EternalBlue, was leaked to The Shadow Brokers. Remember the WannaCry virus that created havoc amongst health services across the world in 2017? The US National Security Agency knew about the vulnerabilities to a version of Microsoft Windows, but they kept the knowledge for future use. It argued that hackers could also use the technology.Īnd let’s face it, authorities have previous. When the FBI requested that Apple create a backdoor to iPhones to access data on two attackers who died in a terrorist incident, Apple declined. The likes of Apple have in the past resisted calls to create a backdoor to its devices. If the purpose is to identify terrorists, don’t use it to identify people who support you. Only store the data you have to store to fulfill the task for which it was collected in the first place. The devices, which can be used to identify people from biometric data, such as iris scans and fingerprints, were apparently used in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.īut a crucial part of privacy considerations is what they call data minimisation. They were also used to identify Afghans who assisted the US. The other problem is that the HIIDE devices weren’t exclusively used to identify potential enemies. There are two problems with this not every country in the world is on the same side as the US, and some non-allied nations have sophisticated technology. In any case, they may find it hard to hack into the devices and decrypt the data. The Taliban already know who their sympathisers are they know who the terrorists are that work for them.
The Taliban have apparently seized US military biometric devices known as HIIDE, or Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment, to identify Taliban sympathisers and possible terrorists easily. Possible privacy breach in Afghanistan shows how data can be a double-edged sword “I don’t think anyone ever thought about data privacy or what to do in the event the system fell into the wrong hands,” one expert told The Intercept.
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