Military biometrics scanners used in Afghanistan are hitting eBay with wartime data still intact

There's more possible bad news today for those in Afghanistan who allied with the United States during this country's long war in that nation. The New York Times reports that a mobile biometrics capture device from the war was purchased by a German security researcher for $68 on eBay. When that researcher examined the fingerprint-and-iris scanner delivered, however, he was (ahem) alarmed to discover that the scanner had been shipped to him with a 2012-era database of scans from over 2,600 people still intact.

Some of those were terrorists and other wanted individuals—the point of the military biometrics program was to provide in-field identification of targets who might try to pass through checkpoints or enter U.S.-secured areas. But others "appeared to be people who had worked with the U.S. government or simply been stopped at checkpoints."