The Taliban's administration in Afghanistan is facing significant turmoil after a cyber attack led to the exposure of over 50GB of sensitive documents online. The breach was orchestrated by a group known as TabiLeaks, which disseminated links to the compromised data via social media.

Details of the Cyber Attack

The stolen documents reportedly originate from 21 different Taliban ministries and governmental bodies. Among the revelations are claims of the Taliban detaining over 1,400 women and 16,000 men, with around 80 foreign nationals, including six women, also allegedly imprisoned.

Implications of the Leaked Data

  • Travel bans have been imposed on more than 8,000 former government employees, preventing them from leaving the country.
  • Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada has restricted overseas academic travel without his explicit approval.
  • The leaked files were reportedly obtained over the past year from compromised Taliban networks.

The leaked data is available on a public website, not on the dark web, and includes information from various Afghan ministries such as the Ministry of Communications & Technology, Ministry of Justice, and the Supreme Court, among others.

Reaction and Official Statements

The Taliban's Ministry of Communications acknowledged the leak but argued that most of the documents had been publicly accessible for years. They insisted that no systems were compromised and that the leak aims to manipulate public perception.

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