Intellectual Property Law

MI6 Nixed Major Undercover Operation After Memory Stick Lost

By Kim Zetter

The United Kingdom’s MI6 agency acknowledged this week that in 2006 it had to scrap a multi-million-dollar undercover drug operation after an agent left a memory stick filled with top-secret data on a transit coach.

The unidentified female agent left the stick behind in her handbag.

Undercover agents and informants were put at risk by the loss of data, and some had to be relocated to protect their lives.

The incident continues the on-going tradition of sensitive data leaks from British law enforcement and intelligence agents. Take the case of the MI6 camera sold on eBay last year, which contained photos, names and fingerprints of Al Qaeda suspects. Or the incident revealed earlier this year when a planned MI5 counterterrorism raid on Al Qaeda suspects had to be hurriedly moved up after news photographers captured details of the operation printed on a “secret” briefing document that Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism chief was carrying on his way to a meeting.

Full post as published by Threat Level on May 01, 2009 (boomark / email).