Oops! Building firm blurts out secrets of hush-hush MI5 HQ

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6493658.ece

By David Leppard 
The Sunday Times
June 14, 2009 

DETAILS of one of Britain's most sensitive spy bases have been revealed 
after they were posted on the internet by the company that built it.

In a security blunder that has irritated MI5, a publicity brochure 
placed online contains the address and full-colour pictures of its 
northern operations centre.

The building was opened amid great secrecy last year. It was used as a 
base for Operation Pathway, when 12 terror suspects thought to have been 
planning attacks on shopping centres in Manchester, were arrested. They 
were later released for lack of evidence.

In recent years MI5 has been happy to acknowledge the existence of its 
headquarters in London and Northern Ireland. They are large and located 
in cities, so spy chiefs considered it impractical to pretend they did 
not exist. By contrast the agency had been hoping to keep the existence 
of its 20m northern headquarters a secret.

[...]


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