The mother of all leaks: anti-leaks manual ends up on… Wikileaks!
Recently on Wikileaks, the independent site which collects classified and confidential material, often coming from government agencies and published anonymously, a manual was published, which instructs agents and businessmen how to protect themselves from… uhm, leaks!
To be specific, the manual dates back to 2001, and is coming from the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom, teaching its agents how to prevent news and information from leaking, and how to protect themselves against investigative journalists, terrorist cells and foreign agents.
The manual against leaks describes characteristics of secret services from countries like Russia and China, their operating procedures, how they build a rapport with foreigners to gather as much information as possible.
The manual is aimed not only at agents, but also at businessmen who travel frequently abroad, and the idea is not to discourage them from trading with Chinese or Russian companies, but rather to warn them against any possible threat to national security which might be hiding behind a face of respectability and professionalism.
According to some excerpts from this document, shoes leak was labeled as “non relevant” by the Ministry due to the eight years passed since it was written, Chinese agents use alcohol and blackmail, especially of a sexual kind, along with planting bugs inside hotel rooms, while the Russians are extensively using eavesdropping technologies such as hidden recorders.
The manual may be outdated, but certainly the fiasco for Her Majesty’s secret service is new… and for those who travel to those countries on business, the information could be useful anyway!
