MI6 camera sells on eBay

An MI6 digital camera holding photos, names and fingerprints of al Qaeda members was sold over eBay for just £17, leading to an investigation by the intelligence service.

The memory of the Nikon camera held names of al Qaeda members, fingerprints and suspects' academic records as well as pictures of rocket launchers and missiles, the Sun newspaper reported.

The camera also had detailed information about an MI6 computer system, while the Sun said 46-year-old Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, being held at Guantanamo Bay after being captured by the CIA in 2007, was named in material found on the memory.

"We can confirm we seized a camera after a member of the public reported it," said Hertfordshire Police in a statement after the camera was handed into Hemel Hempstead police station.

"Intelligence services are investigating," the statement added.

The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassing data losses to affect the intelligence services and the government.

Yesterday, it was reported that an VPN server sold on eBay for under a pound held passwords to council networks.

Last year, a civil servant lost computer discs containing the names, addresses and bank details of 25 million people last year, while in January, the Ministry of Defence said it had lost a laptop containing personal data on 600,000 recruits.

The Home Office said in August that a contractor had lost personal details of every prisoner in England and Wales.

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