Private data security

MI5 engaged in 'extraordinary and persistent illegality' whilst handling personal data, High Court hears

MI5 has been unlawfully holding people's data collected through surveillance or hacking programmes, the high court has been told.

In a case brought by civil rights group Liberty, it emerged that MI5 has been holding large volumes of people’s location data, calls, messages and web browsing history without proper protections.

The security agency are also accused of misleading senior judges by applying for warrants on the basis that data protection obligations were being met - when in fact they were not.

The spy agency has been aware of breaches of compliance for at least three years, yet failed to act and, it is claimed, kept the failings secret.

They have now been exposed by the official watchdog, the investigatory powers commissioner, Lord Justice Fulford, and admitted in outline by Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary.

Liberty said it involved the "mass collection of data of innocent citizens." Megan Goulding, a lawyer for the civil rights group, said: "MI5 have been holding on to people's data - ordinary people's data, your data, my data - illegally for many years.

Intel gathering

Experts: Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets

Katie Jones sure seemed plugged into Washington's political scene. The 30-something redhead boasted a job at a top think tank and a who's-who network of pundits and experts, from the centrist Brookings Institution to the right-wing Heritage Foundation. She was connected to a deputy assistant secretary of state, a senior aide to a senator and the economist Paul Winfree, who is being considered for a seat on the Federal Reserve.

But Katie Jones doesn't exist, The Associated Press has determined. Instead, the persona was part of a vast army of phantom profiles lurking on the professional networking site LinkedIn. And several experts contacted by the AP said Jones' profile picture appeared to have been created by a computer program.

"I'm convinced that it's a fake face," said Mario Klingemann, a German artist who has been experimenting for years with artificially generated portraits and says he has reviewed tens of thousands of such images. "It has all the hallmarks."

Experts who reviewed the Jones profile's LinkedIn activity say it's typical of espionage efforts on the professional networking site, whose role as a global Rolodex has made it a powerful magnet for spies.

Intel gathering

ESPIONAGE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE PRESENT

“How many divisions does the pope have?” This was Stalin’s sarcastic response to Churchill’s request not to let internal developments in Poland upset relations with the pope. While Stalin’s dismissive statement suggested that the Catholic Church was an insignificant power in international affairs, he could not have been farther from the truth. The Holy See has played an important but understudied role in intelligence and diplomacy through its diplomatic service, which is one of the oldest in the world. The extensive presence of the Holy See’s diplomats combined with their neutrality provides them access to unique information in the far corners of the globe.

Formerly top-secret KGB (Soviet security service) documents declassified after the end of the Cold War reveal the Kremlin’s obsession with containing the papacy’s influence. The Soviet security services devoted substantial resources to penetrating and undermining the Catholic Church for the entirety of the Cold War. And as international threats have become more sophisticated, so too have the Vatican’s methods for protecting itself. Today, because the papacy maintains diplomatic relations with 183 countries, the Catholic Church is still an influential power in international affairs. While the papacy does not possess a formal intelligence service, it does field a diplomatic corps that provides valuable information to the diplomatic community in the far reaches of the globe, including war zones in the Middle East and Africa.