MoD's security manual leaked on web

THE UK MINISTRY OF LEAKS, er, Defence (MoD), has seen its manual of how to avoid leaks, leaked onto the world wide web.

The MoD, which has a habit of leaving all kinds of classified documents laying about where they can be nicked, apparently wrote a 560,000-word Defence Manual of Security in 2001 that told its would-be James and Jamie Bonds how to avoid leakage of secret or possibly embarrassing data.

Somehow the document ended up on Wikileaks and it makes for rather amusing reading, actually.

It seems that the MoD is particularly concerned about information getting into the hands of investigative journalists as much as the ever feared "subversive or terrorist organisations".

Chinese agents are "expert flatterers and are well aware of the softening effect of food and alcohol", according to the document.

Chinese spies are very different from the portrayal of 'Moscow Rules' in the novels of John Le Carre, the manual reads.

"The Chinese make no distinction between information and intelligence. Their appetite for information, particularly in the scientific and technical field, is vast and indiscriminate.

"They do not run agents, they make friends. Although there are Chinese intelligence officers, both civilian and military, these fade into insignificance behind the mass of ordinary students, businessmen and locally employed staff who are working (at least part-time) on the orders of various parts of the State intelligence-gathering apparatus," the manual further warns.

Chinese spooks employ telephone and electronic bugs in hotels and restaurants. They have also been known to search hotel rooms and to use surveillance techniques against visitors of particular interest.

You should never shag anyone, deal in black-market currency or Chinese antiques and artifacts, stray into 'forbidden' areas or make injudicious use of a camera or video recorder.

The same advice applies to going to Russia. Apparently the FSB [the Russian security service and successor to the legendary KGB] makes extensive use of sophisticated technical devices.

"In the main hotels, all telephones can be tapped and in some rooms visual or photographic surveillance can be carried out, if necessary using infra-red cameras to take photographs in the dark."

The MoD is fairly laid back about its documents ending up on the net, apparently. It was only marked 'restricted'. MoD policy is to keep security policies and procedures private, as an MoD spokesman has been quoted as having said. Policy it might be, but obviously it hasn't worked.

The MoD manual dates from 2001 and apparently it's out of date and things are so different now that it's no loss that the UK's useless Government's security guidance is plastered up on the web for all to see. µ