Afghanistan Thread: 16 years Later, America is still there

**6souls** · 2021-08-30 21:00

https://twitter.com/techreview/statu...14084423688194

The Taliban now have access to a trove of biometric data used to identify millions of Afghans.

MIT Technology Review spoke to two individuals familiar with one of these systems, a US-funded database known as APPS, the Afghan Personnel and Pay System. Used by both the Afghan Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense to pay the national army and police, it is arguably the most sensitive system of its kind in the country, going into extreme levels of detail about security personnel and their extended networks.

Started in 2016 to cut down on paycheck fraud involving fake identities, or “ghost soldiers,” APPS contains some half a million records about every member of the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, according to estimates by individuals familiar with the program. The data is collected “from the day they enlisted,” says one individual who worked on the system, and remains in the system forever, whether or not someone remains actively in service. Records could be updated, he added, but there was no deletion or data retention policy.

Our sources say that each profile in APPS holds at least 40 data fields.

These include obvious personal information such as name, date, and place of birth, as well as a unique ID number that connects each profile to a biometric profile kept by the Afghan Ministry of Interior.

But it also contains details on the individuals’ military specialty and career trajectory, as well as sensitive relational data such as the names of their father, uncles, and grandfathers, as well as the names of the two tribal elders per recruit who served as guarantors for their enlistment. This turns what was a simple digital catalogue into something far more dangerous, according to Ranjit Singh, a postdoctoral scholar at the nonprofit research group Data & Society who studies data infrastructures and public policy. He calls it a sort of “genealogy” of “community connections” that is “putting all of these people at risk.”

But not all the data has such clear use. The police ID application form, for example, also appears to ask for recruits’ favorite fruit and vegetable. The Office of the Secretary of Defense referred questions about this information to United States Central Command, which did not respond to a request for comment on what they should do with such data.

**Gwynplaine** · 2021-08-30 21:32

Meh. Practically every database seems like it's been hacked at this point and every day is a new cyber attack. We're just saving them the middle step of hiring some group of Russians with crypto currency.

**thetruepandagod** · 2021-08-30 21:37

iraq and afghanistan were just practice for us in how to coerce a towns population to accept biometrics obvi

**Cail** · 2021-08-31 03:57

I've seen a tweet roaming around from Trump Jr supposedly showing the talisman flying a Blackhawk around with someone hanging by the neck.

Dunno if it's true considering the source...huge grain of salt etc

**Anoat** · 2021-08-31 08:41

Does the taliban have like...anyone qualified to fly a Blackhawk? Serious question.

**arus2001** · 2021-08-31 09:57

I would imagine getting it airborne is the easy part. Landing it, however?

**Day** · 2021-08-31 10:08

their homies were flying boeing 767s 2 decades ago, they probably can figure it out

**Zealot** · 2021-08-31 10:23

Originally Posted by arus2001

I would imagine getting it airborne is the easy part. Landing it, however?

Landing has never been important to them.

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**Day** · 2021-08-31 10:44

Originally Posted by Day

their homies were flying boeing 767s 2 decades ago, they probably can figure it out

Originally Posted by Zealot

Landing has never been important to them.

**6souls** · 2021-08-31 10:55

Originally Posted by Cail

I've seen a tweet roaming around from Trump Jr supposedly showing the talisman flying a Blackhawk around with someone hanging by the neck.

Dunno if it's true considering the source...huge grain of salt etc

https://twitter.com/TalibTimes/statu...28727376007171

Too grainy to confirm if it's a harness or "by the neck."

**NynJa** · 2021-08-31 11:28

Looks like a harness, based on the body position. If it were by the neck, the body would be limp straight down instead of being more ) shaped. Their hands seem bound behind their back though.