Stefan Mileschin

Daft Aussie spooks are blowing their cover by announcing what they do for a living on social notworking sites.

While the move might be about getting Pussy Galore, it is proving to be a gold mine for foreign spooks who want to know who to keep an eye on.

A survey by Fairfax Media found that while in the good old days you would not be able to find out what a spook did without a lot of torture, or a honey trap, more than 200 former and present intelligence officers have disclosed their classified employment in profiles on LinkedIn, other professional networking sites and social media including Facebook and Twitter.

Most of them only said that they are hired by agencies including the top secret Defence Signals Directorate and the Defence Intelligence Organisation, but some have revealed details about their work.

This included work at specific intelligence facilities, overseas postings and liaison with allied intelligence agencies, linguistic expertise indicating particular intelligence targets, and involvement with specific issues and information technology systems. None of them fessed up to wet work, black ops or bumping off men with Golden Guns.

But the security problem does not really stop at Australia. One officer told of his postings to Britain's Government Communications Headquarters in Gloucestershire and GCHQ's Composite Signals Station in Cornwall and a posting to the US National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Some have told of their specialist knowledge of counter-terrorism, telecommunications and aerospace.

http://news.techeye.net/security/aus...er-on-facebook