Category Archives: Espionage

Government lawyer tells court M15 officers could authorise murder

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Admission came hours before bill allowing continuation of controversial powers passed the Commons

Government lawyers have told a court that MI5 officers could authorise an informer to carry out a murder under controversial powers that ministers want to see continued contained in a bill that passed the Commons hours later.

The admission came in a court of appeal hearing on Wednesday when Sir James Eadie, representing the government, was asked if there was “a power for a Security Service officer to authorise an agent to execute an extremely hostile individual”.

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Indonesian fisher finds drone submarine on possible covert mission

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Navy seizes UUV, likely a Chinese Sea Wing, that experts say could be used to plot routes for military subs

An Indonesian fisher has found what experts say is likely to be a Chinese submarine drone in waters on a strategic maritime route from the South China Sea to Australia.

According to Indonesian media the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) was found on 20 December near Selayar Island in South Sulawesi. Six days later it was handed to police and then transferred to the Indonesian military.

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George Blake, notorious cold war double agent, dies aged 98

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Former MI6 spy exposed hundreds of western agents and settled in Soviet Union after escape from jail

The former British spy and Soviet Union double agent George Blake has died at the age of 98.

The RIA news agency reported that Blake died in Russia, citing the country’s SVR foreign intelligence agency. “We received some bitter news – the legendary George Blake passed away,” it said.

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Revealed: how abusive texts led to discovery of hacking of Al Jazeera

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Threatening messages led to monitoring of phone that unearthed evidence of cyber-attack against Qatar-based network

A series of abusive text messages sent to an Al Jazeera investigative programme were the first crumbs that eventually led to the discovery of an unprecedented hacking operation against dozens of staff from the Qatar-based media network, according to one of the journalists who was targeted.

Researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto claimed on Sunday that the UAE and Saudi Arabia used spyware sold by an Israeli private intelligence company to access the phones of at least 36 journalists, producers and executives from Al Jazeera, as well as that of a London-based reporter with the Al Araby network.

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‘Do you remember the underwear’s colour?’ – Navalny’s call with duped spy

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Russian opposition leader publishes transcript of call with FSB operative allegedly involved in attempt to kill him

On Monday Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny published a telephone call he had with FSB operative Konstantin Kudryavtsev, who was allegedly part of the FSB team, which in August poisoned Navalny when he travelled to Siberia.

Navalny survived after the plane he fell sick on was diverted to a nearby airport and he received quick medical attention. He rang Kudryavtsev from Germany last week, pretending to be an aide to a top FSB official.

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Revealed: China suspected of spying on Americans via Caribbean phone networks

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Security expert claims Chinese surveillance may have affected tens of thousands of Americans

China appears to have used mobile phone networks in the Caribbean to surveil US mobile phone subscribers as part of its espionage campaign against Americans, according to a mobile network security expert who has analysed sensitive signals data.

The findings paint an alarming picture of how China has allegedly exploited decades-old vulnerabilities in the global telecommunications network to route “active” surveillance attacks through telecoms operators.

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Orion hack exposed vast number of targets – impact may not be known for a while

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Analysis: eavesdropping on high-value targets is labour intensive so hackers may not have made most of access

If there is one silver lining to the months-long global cyber-espionage campaign discovered when a prominent cybersecurity firm learned it had been breached, it might be that the sheer numbers of potentially compromised entities offers them some protection.

By compromising one piece of security software – a security tool called Orion developed by the Texan company SolarWinds – the attackers gained access to an extraordinary array of potential targets in the US alone: more than 425 of the Fortune 500 list of top companies; all of the top 10 telecommunications companies; all five branches of the military; and all of the top five accounting firms.

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Details revealed of secret deal that gave Chinese spies free rein in Switzerland

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Agents travelled from China at Swiss taxpayers’ expense to interview deportation targets

The full text of a secret deal between Switzerland and China that allowed Chinese security officials access to the country at Swiss taxpayers’ expense has been revealed for the first time as the government pushes to renew it.

The five-year “readmission agreement”, which was signed in 2015 and expired on Monday, lay out terms for Chinese agents to travel to Switzerland and interview suspected Chinese nationals that Swiss authorities wished to deport.

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Havana syndrome: ‘directed’ radio frequency likely cause of illness – report

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First official explanation of illness that affected US diplomats in Cuba says ‘pulsed’ energy may have led to unexplained symptoms

The mysterious symptoms that have afflicted American diplomats stationed in Cuba, puzzling scientists and intelligence agencies alike, are most likely to have been caused by “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy”, according to a report commissioned by the US government.

Those suffering from Havana syndrome, as the condition has become known, have complained of headaches, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision and other ailments.

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Hackers HQ and Space Command: how UK defence budget could be spent

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Creation of specialist cyber force and artificial intelligence unit in pipeline

A specialist cyber force of several hundred British hackers has been in the works for nearly three years, although its creation has been partly held back by turf wars between the spy agency GCHQ and the Ministry of Defence, to which the unit is expected to jointly report.

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Chinese-Australian community leader charged under Australia’s new foreign interference laws

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High profile figure Sunny Duong the first person to be charged under 2018 laws as relations between China and Australia deteriorate

A Chinese-Australian community figure who was pictured with federal minister Alan Tudge donating $30,000 in Covid-19 relief to a Melbourne hospital in June has become the first person charged with a foreign interference offence.

Di Sanh Duong, known as Sunny, appeared before the Melbourne magistrates court on Thursday charged with preparing for a foreign interference offence.

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Legal action taken against PM over refusal to investigate Kremlin meddling

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Cross-party group files claim to force inquiry into Russian interference in UK elections

A cross-party group of MPs and peers including a former national security adviser are taking legal action against Boris Johnson over his government’s refusal to order an inquiry into Russian interference in UK elections.

The group filed a claim in the high court in an attempt to force the prime minister to carry out an independent investigation or public inquiry. It is the first legal action of its kind over alleged national security failures.

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UK has mounted covert attacks against Russian leadership, says ex-mandarin

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Former cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill says UK used offensive cyber-capability to exploit Moscow’s ‘vulnerabilities’

Britain has carried a series of covert attacks on Russia’s leaders and their allies, the former cabinet secretary has disclosed.

Mark Sedwill said the UK had sought to exploit Moscow’s “vulnerabilities”, including through the deployment of its recently declared offensive cyber-capability.

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Yang Hengjun: friend says writer told him he was a Chinese spy for 10 years

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In private letter Yang reveals he spent a decade spying in countries including Hong Kong and the US, according to friend

An Australian writer detained in China on charges of espionage spent a decade working as a Chinese spy, including in Hong Kong and the United States, a close friend claims.

Yang Hengjun was detained in January 2019 and held in various forms of secretive and punitive detention until he was formally charged this month for alleged espionage on behalf of another country. The early stages of trial are under way.

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MI5 boss says Russian and Chinese threats to UK ‘growing in severity’

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Ken McCallum also pledges to boost diversity in the service as response to Black Lives Matter movement

MI5’s new boss has said the spy threats posed by China and Russia to the UK are “growing in severity and complexity” while the terrorist threat from Isis and the far right “persists at scale”.

Giving his first speech since his domestic spy agency’s director general in April, Ken McCallum focused on risks from hostile states, including undermining “the integrity of UK research” on a coronavirus vaccine.

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As election nears, Trump builds the very ‘deep state’ he railed against

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White House manipulation of US intelligence on Russian and Chinese interference may rival WMD fiasco that led to Iraq war, say experts

Two months before the presidential election, the US intelligence agencies are under increasing pressure from the Trump administration to provide only the information it wants to hear.

After installing loyalist John Ratcliffe at the pinnacle of the intelligence community, the administration is seeking to limit congressional oversight, and has removed a veteran official from a sensitive national security role in the justice department

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France: senior military officer suspected of spying for Russia

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Defence minister confirms security breach that may have supplied sensitive documents to Kremlin

The French government is investigating a senior military officer over a “security breach”, the defence minister has said, following a report the person was suspected of spying for Russia.

“What I can confirm is that a senior officer is facing legal proceedings for a security breach,” Florence Parly said. She gave no further details.

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US Senate report goes beyond Mueller to lay bare Trump campaign’s Russia links

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Bipartisan intelligence panel says that Russian who worked on Trump’s 2016 bid was career spy, amid a stunning range of contacts

A report by the Senate intelligence committee provides a treasure trove of new details about Donald Trump’s relationship with Moscow, and says that a Russian national who worked closely with Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 was a career intelligence officer.

The bipartisan report runs to nearly 1,000 pages and goes further than last year’s investigation into Russian election interference by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. It lays out a stunning web of contacts between Trump, his top election aides and Russian government officials, in the months leading up to the 2016 election.

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British spy’s account sheds light on role in 1953 Iranian coup

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Interview given by MI6 officer in 1980s was discovered in research for new documentary

A first-hand account of Britain’s role in the 1953 coup that overthrew the elected prime minister of Iran and restored the shah to power has been published for the first time.

The account by the MI6 officer who ran the operation describes how it took British intelligence years to persuade the US to take part in the coup. Meanwhile, MI6 recruited agents and bribed members of Iran’s parliament with banknotes transported in biscuit tins.

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