MI5 building on London’s Millbank (Pic: PA)
MI5 is recruiting “telephone spies” to listen in on plots against the 2012 Olympics.
The Security Service hopes to find candidates able to eavesdrop on potential terrorists by getting foreign language speakers to play an interactive “game” online.
To apply, just log on to the official MI5 website. Under “current jobs” find the Foreign Language Unit Language Analyst job section, with a starter salary of £24,750. Wannabe spooks can then tune into an audio tape of a conversation in a foreign language and are later quizzed about it.Pass the test and you go through a selection process to be a spy – although if you’ve told anyone you are applying, forget it.
You then need a secret ID log-in for further screening. Six months later you are told if you are in.
The only qualifications are an understanding of various Middle Eastern and North African Arabic dialects. Top of the wish list are people fluent in Yemeni, Algerian, Lebanese, Syrian and Kuwaiti.
A source said: “The Security Service needs people to make an application so phone interceptions can be understood fully.”
All MI5 phone tapping operations are legal, requiring a Home Office warrant.
Earlier this year, an Iranian hacker broke into servers belonging to a reseller for certificate authority Comodo and issued himself a range of certificates for sites including Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail. With these certificates, he could eavesdrop on users of those mail providers, even if they use SSL to protect their mail sessions.
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A Chicago woman was acquitted Wednesday of felony eavesdropping charges for recording two police officers on her BlackBerry phone without their consent.
The case points to a legal gray area, in which the recording was clearly against state law, but a jury acquitted Tiawanda Moore because it felt she was trying to expose wrongdoing within the department. The two internal affairs investigators were allegedly trying to pressure her to drop a complaint she had filed against a Chicago police officer who she said had fondled her and given her his personal phone number after he responded to a domestic disturbance call in her home.
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The Finance Ministry today said its office premises are subjected to regular screening for the presence of bugging devices, but no such material has been found so far.
“… All these premises (in Finance Ministry) have been subjected to regular screening. During these exercises, no devices have been detected,” the Minister of State for Finance, Mr S.S. Palanimanickam, said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
He said that security checks are periodically conducted in the Ministry of Finance and the Finance Minister’s Office.
One such routine security check was conducted on September 4, 2010, by the Investigation Directorate of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which engaged the services of an expert with domain knowledge of the subject, he added.
During the check, adhesive-like substances were noticed at various locations.
“This was brought to the notice of the Prime Minister by the Union Finance Minister in September, 2010,” he said.
Subsequently, the Prime Minister directed the Intelligence Bureau to conduct a secret inquiry into the matter.
“Adhesive patches were found stuck at a few places. The adhesive patches were subjected to chemical/forensic analysis, which revealed that the substance contained contents comparable with contents of chewing gum,” the Minister added.
Physical examination of the recovered substance did not reveal any sign or mark suggestive of any device having been attached thereto.
TENAHA, Texas (KTRE) –
Tenaha Mayor George Bowers has confirmed that Texas Rangers and FBI agents searched city property for bugging devices this week.
Ranger Tom Davis is the lead investigator in the case, according to a spokesman with the ranger’s office. Messages have been left for Davis.
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