Local council posts MI5 spy center details online
One of Britain’s local councils published details of a highly sensitive spy center online. The premise, a covert MI5 operations center, now has potentially dangerous information about it available in the public domain.
Funnily enough, there’s precious little buzz besides from the Daily Mail, which carried the story crediting Alan Turnbull of the site Secret Bases for discovering the council’s indiscretion. Turnbull’s site specializes in locating UK Ministry of Defense secret facilities and sites via Internet tools.
In this case, the council (unnamed by the Daily Mail) even published a planning file that revealed the ‘national security’ role of the center. Its purpose is to share intelligence with MI6 and GCHQ. A moot point rather, when it can’t properly be called secure anymore now that the building’s plans as well as sophisticated ‘anti-intruder measures’ are now available publicly. Besides the plans, information about the number of staff (including guards), operating hours and the location of its security cameras.
This rather defeats the purpose of attempting to hide the giant computer hub it uses in an anonymous-looking warehouse in the South-East of England. The computer hub is a pool of computer servers which form part of a system designed to optimize intelligence-sharing between Britain’s security agencies. Photos of the building have also been published, with full maps.
Turnbull alerted the Ministry of De fence about his findings, saying “Details of this highly sensitive site were extraordinarily easy to find. It seems incredible that local officials have published all this material – apparently without considering the full implications of that decision. “
How did the local council defend their actions? Their statement reveals either blatant ignorance or perhaps, a case of simple stupidity: “There is a legal requirement that we publish all details of planning applications. We, like many other local authorities, make this information available on the internet.” The council insisted that the applicant for the site as well as agents did not ask for restrictions, therefore they saw no reason to restrict the information.
You have to wonder how ‘intelligent’ the intelligence agencies involved were to allow something like this to happen. The sites have been compromised far too easily, endangering not only local security but wasting taxpayers’ money – for how could you possibly use a ‘secret’ location which is no longer secret? With local councils like these, you won’t need to be James Bond to compromise security it seems.
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December 1st, 2008
Um, where is the big deal? Everything you cited can be changed and I’m sure will be. Knowing where something is located is not equivalent to knowing what is going on inside nor how it is done. Everyond knows where our NSA and CIA and DIA and FBI are located. I think one should be highly suspicious that any facility that was meant to be uber secret would get publicly outed this way. British secrecy isn’t REALLY that bad is it?
December 2nd, 2008
The biggest military operation in WW2, the D-Day landings in Normandy, employed diversionary tactics to draw attention away from the real game.
Could it be that the same thing is happening here?
Maybe, by publishing the plans if this “covert” facility, the council has done exactly what MI5 wanted it to do.
April 21st, 2009
just gotta to know where to look