[via the original MI5 website news email list]
Security Service MI5What's New
9 February 2007
The Service's Director General, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, was recently given the opportunity to support the Science Museum's latest educational project, an exciting new exhibition called 'The Science of Spying'. Dame Eliza visited the Museum yesterday evening (Thursday 8 February) to formally open the exhibition. Dame Eliza said:
"I was delighted to be invited to open the 'Science of Spying' exhibition. The entertaining programme of exhibits and activities introduces children and parents to some important issues facing our society in the 21st Century. Some of the themes of the exhibition are at the forefront of the current work of the Security Service (MI5). Visitors are invited to weigh the apparently incompatible demands of privacy and security, as officers of my Service do on a daily basis. You will have the opportunity to think about what developments in technology mean for the verification or falsification of identity. The exhibition is a stimulating and highly enjoyable experience and I invite you all to discover for yourselves the 'Science of Spying'."
The exhibition offers children and adults the chance to try out for themselves some of the activities that make up modern day spying. Visitors get to role-play as a trainee spy, using the latest technologies and going on a 'secret undercover mission'. They also get to experience what it is like to be spied upon and are offered a glimpse of the future of surveillance technology.
The exhibition manages to address a number of serious issues surrounding the use of surveillance. Visitors will be invited to think about some of the dilemmas facing a modern-day spy. The Science of Spying launches at the Science Museum on 10 February 2007.
For more information, see www.scienceofspying.com.
Any parents or teachers who do take their children to this exhibition should explain that in addition to "They also get to experience what it is like to be spied on", they will also have come under surveillance on the journey into Central London via CCTV, ANPR and Oyster Card etc. transport surveillance, and possibly, credit card financial transaction surveillance as well, since the entrance dee is £8 per adult.
We are somewhat curious as to what exacvtly a "biometric door hanger" might consist of as part of the £25 spy kit merchandise atthe Science Museum shop
However, for the budding intelligence agents amongst you, carefully examine the MI5 website page announcing this news
http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page584.html
and see if you can discover the "secret" photos of Dame ELiza Manningham Buller, the outgoing Director General of MI5 the Security Service, who formally opened the exhibition yesterday.
See if you can tell when the photos were probably taken, when they were digitised, and when they were probably uploaded to the website, and what sort of camera is likely to have been used.
Here are our guesses below:
Status of image | thumbnail | large image | some meta data |
---|---|---|---|
"secret" | File Name : emb_spying1.jpg
[...]
Date/Time Original : 2007:02:08 19:17:25.17Z [...]
File Source : Digital Camera [...]
Make : NIKON CORPORATION [...]
Create Date : 2007:02:08 19:17:25.17Z [...]
| ||
"secret" | File Name : emb_spying2.jpg
[...]
Date/Time Original : 2007:02:08 19:17:34.16Z [...]
File Source : Digital Camera [...]
Make : NIKON CORPORATION [...]
Create Date : 2007:02:08 19:17:34.16Z [...]
| ||
published | File Name : emb_spying3.jpg
[...]
Date/Time Original : 2007:02:08 19:17:35.77Z [...]
File Source : Digital Camera [...]
Make : NIKON CORPORATION [...]
Create Date : 2007:02:08 19:17:35.77Z [...]
| ||
published | File Name : emb_spying4.jpg
[...]
Date/Time Original : 2007:02:08 19:25:38.37Z [...]
File Source : Digital Camera [...]
Make : NIKON CORPORATION [...]
Create Date : 2007:02:08 19:25:38.37Z [...]
| ||
"secret" | File Name : emb_spying5.jpg
[...]
Date/Time Original : 2007-02-08T19:34:59.32Z [...]
File Source : Digital Camera [...]
Make : NIKON CORPORATION [...]
|
Note the lack of any embedded Copyright message, and the probably indavertant inclusion of unique Adobe Photoshop identifiers in 4 of the the 5 large images. The website was updated at 10am on Friday 9th February 2007, so it appears that some of these images were finished off in Photoshop aftwerwards , assuming that the timestamps are for Zulu time i.e. Greenwich Mean Time.
This was a public event with press photographers, but it does illustrate some of the potential pitfalls with respect to anonymity of sources on the world wide web, especially if you an investigative journalist, blogger or even an intelligence agency, which is trying to protect the anonymity of their whistleblower or covert human informants or technical intelligence assets.
See Spy Blog's hints and tips for whistleblowers.