Would James Bond have had a Facebook account?
By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial
Posted in MI6, spy, James Bond, Facebook on
One of the most amazing stories I’ve heard in a while.
The wife of the new head of the MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service no less, thought that it would be a good idea to expose personal photographs of their family, the location of their flat as well as the identities of friends and close associates!
Looking deeper into he story, it’s probably not as bad as it sounds. For instance, the news of the appointment of Sir John Sawers is not the secret it would likely to have been in the past. His name was known and the government were completely open about his appointment.
Nevetheless, MI6 employees are still bound by strict secrecy guidelines, and you would probably expect anybody that close to the head of British secret intelligence to think twice about opening a Facebook account.
It’s also extremely embarrassing to the government, as it’s only recently that the government released its national cyber security strategy.
As I wrote in a previous blog post, I have doubts over the adequacy of Lord West as Minister of Cyber Security - from what I’ve just seen I have should have big doubts about the technology awareness of the secret intelligence services as well.
As Sophos security analyst Graham Cluley says in his blog post, three quarters of Facebook people allow their profiles to be viewed by any other member, even if they weren’t friends.
For Lady Shelley Sawers, she’s probably learned the risks of Facebook and social networking too late.
Professor Anthony Glees, director of Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said that the Sawers family would almost certainly need to be re-housed and the children may require extra protection.
Anyway, in answer to the first question - A real spy wouldn’t really advertise his existence on a social network.
But James Bond probably would, considering he gives his name out to everybody he meets and doesn’t really keep his identity that secret. In fact I’ve searched for James Bond on Facebook - turns out there’s quite a few!
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