Ministry of Defense's "How To Stop Leaks" Document Is Leaked 141
samzenpus writes "A restricted 2,400 page-document put out by the MoD designed to help intelligence personnel with information security has been leaked onto the internet. Wikileaks notes that Joint Services Protocol 440 (JSP 440), was published in 2001 and lays out protocols to defend against hackers, journalists, and foreign spies. it says, 'Leaks usually take the form of reports in the public media which appear to involve the unauthorized disclosure of official information (whether protectively marked or not) that causes political harm or embarrassment to either the UK Government or the Department concerned... The threat [of leakage] is less likely to arise from positive acts of counter-espionage, than from leakage of information through disaffected members of staff, or as a result of the attentions of an investigative journalist, or simply by accident or carelessness.' " Looks like it's time to write JSP 441.
Re:Surprised? Not. (Score:1, Informative)
this is a fairly googleable event. Example coverage: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004412250_brits14.html [nwsource.com]
Re:May I be the first to say (Score:5, Informative)
that causes political harm or embarrassment
Other than military secrets like we have a spy in such and such position. I'm going to call upon.. "If you don't act in a manner that would embarrass yourself/department you should have nothing to worry about." They have been using it to justify countless forms of monitoring.. let's see how they like it when the positions are switched.. Yes I know I'm living in fantasy land.
I think the UK government reached an all time low in this is when Thatcher's government tried to use the official secrets act to prevent it becoming public knowledge that they had encouraged Matrix Churchill and Sheffield Forgemasters to make Saddam Hussain's supergun [millbanksystems.com], even though keeping it quiet would have resulted in the directors going to prison. So they were prepared to see innocent men who had cooperated with the intelligence services (even offering to fit a tracking device) go to prison rather than be embarrassed.
Re:Outdated spook mentality (Score:1, Informative)
Duh. You do realise that political embarrassment in the context of the military generally doesn't mean the Permanent Undersecretary having an affair, rather that they're doing things that they'd rather other countries didn't know about (and therefore there is the risk of embarrassment if the other country does find out) or that need to be secret and would simply look incompetent if they leaked, e.g the position of the on-watch SSBN. Or construction details of a particular kind of armour, which would be embarrassing if they became public (incl. terrorist) knowledge.