For an agency devoted to secrecy and surveillance, it is an embarrassing slip-up. An inadvertent disclosure on a university document has revealed that MI5 is partly behind what was meant to be a covert bug and drone research project.
Ostensibly, Imperial College London’s research was to create a quadcopter system for charging remote agricultural sensors — but MI5’s participation has emerged because somebody involved stated it was the secret second funder of the program.
Paperwork produced by Imperial initially cited the apparently obscure Government Communications Planning Directorate as a backer — a name used in Whitehall as a codename for MI5.
Alerted to the slip-up by sister agency MI6, efforts were made to ask Imperial to discreetly remove the reference, but not before it had been drawn to the Guardian’s attention. Since then, the link to MI5 has been confirmed.
An intelligence source said that while it can be difficult to place a bug, requiring operatives to carry out installation in disguise, a more serious practical problem is making sure they remain charged over extended periods.
“It is not impossible to get somebody to a key location to place a listening device, but what is more difficult is to keep sending people back to charge it up — which you might want to keep in place for months or years,” the source added.
High technology has long been part of a spy agency’s work, although the reality is nothing like as glamorous as some of the equipment provided by Q, the recurring James Bond character.
MI6 once used a fake rock to hide electronic equipment in Moscow. It was discovered in 2006 by the Russian Federal Security Service, which gleefully released footage of what it said was a British spy picking up the concealed monitoring device from the side of a road.
Several years later, the UK admitted it had been caught spying.
Flying a small drone to recharge and extract data from bugs would be difficult to do abroad, but in the UK, where MI5 operates, sources say the theory is that it could be relatively easy to pilot a craft under the cover of darkness.
The researcher’s work was published in September last year in a peer-reviewed, open-access paper, in the journal IEEE Access.
It begins by saying that “remote monitoring under challenging conditions continues to present problems to prospective practitioners.”
A solution, the paper says, is to take advantage of “recent advances integrating inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone, platforms with in situ wireless sensors.”
That, the authors aid “can pave the way to delivering long-lasting monitoring systems in remote and extreme environments.”
Pictures in the paper show a modified quadcopter, more than 50cm wide, which was tested for its ability to land on target in windy outdoors environments.
Charging of the monitoring devices was only required every 30 days in a test application, the researchers said.
“The security applications of this technology are not in any doubt — this form of system is in active use in some of the most sensitive intelligence missions undertaken by the British state,” said Sam Armstrong, director of communications at the Henry Jackson Society think tank.
The think tank also raised concerns that one of the members of the research team had left the UK and now worked for Chinese engineering giant Huawei in Shenzen.
Armstrong accused MI5 of making a misjudgement in its vetting procedures for the project and displaying “a wider naivety” over China.
However, MI5 is not understood to have security concerns, while Imperial insiders said that there was “no technology leak,” because the results of its research are published — even if the full extent of its potential applications is not spelled out.
What is not clear is whether MI5 has taken any of the development work forward by adding bespoke capabilities in-house.
Imperial College said that “this project with agricultural applications is published and open to anyone” and that “none of our research is classified.”
Britain’s spy agencies often use code names on public documents to conceal the involvement of their work. MI6 uses the cover name Government Communications Bureau, once revealed on an energy efficiency certificate for its distinctive headquarters in Vauxhall, London.
That, too, had been published in error.
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
A Japanese city would urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which would be recommended for all residents in Toyoake City — would not be binding and there would be no penalties incurred for higher usage, the draft ordinance showed. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues... including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said yesterday. The draft urges elementary-school students to avoid smartphones after 9pm, and junior-high students and older are advised not
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) attended a grand ceremony in Lhasa yesterday during a rare visit to Tibet, where he urged “ethnic unity and religious harmony” in a region where China is accused of human rights abuses. The vast high-altitude area on the country’s western edge, established as an autonomous region in 1965 — six years after the 14th Dalai Lama fled into exile — was once a hotbed for protest against Chinese Communist Party rule. Rights groups accuse Beijing’s leaders of suppressing Tibetan culture and imposing massive surveillance, although authorities claim their policies have fostered stability and rapid economic development in
RSS