The Daily Mail reports that personal and family details of Sir John Sawers, the new head of MI6, were exposed after his wife published intimate photographs and family details on her Facebook page. According to the paper, “Amazingly, she had put virtually no privacy protection on her account, making it visible to any of the site’s 200 million users who chose to be in the open-access ‘London’ network – regardless of where in the world they actually were.” The paper reproduced the photos in their paper after notifying the Foreign Office, who in turn, contacted Facebook to remove the family’s details. The exposed details reportedly included the location of his London residence and the whereabouts of his grown children.
Not everyone thinks this is a big deal in terms of a security breach, though. While The Times calls it a “major security breach,” and The BBC reports that some British politicians are calling the details a security lapse that leaves the incoming MI6 chief vulnerable to blackmail and criticism, others see the incident as no more than mildly embarrassing. The Guardian quotes Foreign Secretary David Miliband as reacting, “It’s not a state secret that he wears Speedo swimming trunks.” “Let’s grow up.”
Photo credit: Sky News