- Secure Dark Web Portal launched by MI6 offers a new contact route for potential informants
- Agency Hopes Silent Courier will attract Russian sources and other people with secrets
- MI6 provides Tor and VPN advice to help informants protect their identities
British Intelligence Agency MI6 has launched a new dark web portal designed to help it establish secure contact with potential informants in Russia and worldwide.
Courier Silent’s new platform is designed to allow people with sensitive information to send messages to the agency without exposing their identity.
The outgoing chief of the MI6, Richard Moore, should confirm the launch during a speech in Istanbul. “Today, we are asking those who have sensitive information on global instability, international terrorism or hostile state intelligence to contact the MI6 safely online,” said Moore, according to a press release from Foreign Office. “Our virtual door is open to you.”
Carefully examined
The espionage agency has published multilingual advice explaining how to use the system on its official YouTube channel, which you can monitor below.
The steps, if you wish to follow them, include downloading the TOR browser, the execution of a reliable VPN and the use of a device not linked to your personal identity.
If it was the end of the 1990s or the early 2000s, and a film, it would probably involve setting up a camp in an internet coffee.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yvette Cooper, said that the new approach was part of the efforts to maintain the United Kingdom one step ahead of opponents, noting: “Our world class intelligence agencies are on the coal of this challenge, working behind the scenes to ensure the safety of the British.
This decision echoes a strategy adopted by the US Central Intelligence Agency, which also tried to attract Russian agents online following a damaging violation in China which exposed its networks.
Silent Courier represents the first time that MI6 has offered a dedicated platform on the Dark Web.
The agency stressed that all the information sent by the system will be carefully examined.
Moore, who has been the leader of the Mi6 for five years, is expected to resign soon, and will be replaced by Blaise Mereweli, who will become the first woman to direct the service.
For a service often closely associated with James Bond, the launch shows the way in which modern spying in the real world is increasingly shaped by technology rather than by Martinis and Aston Martins.
Via Bbc
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