Monday, October 31, 2022
Tory Ministers putting national security at risk
One would have thought that after the saga of Liz Truss's phone being hacked by the Russians, the use of a personal email account by the Home Secretary to leak confidential information, Boris Johnson's moble phone number being publicised on the internet and even the controversy over Hillary Clinton's emails, the alarm would have been raised amongst Tory Ministers, but nobody appears to have being paying attention.
According to the Guardian, intelligence experts and former officials have warned that Ministers risk creating “wild west” conditions in matters of national security by the increased use of personal email and phones to conduct confidential business.
The paper says that there is growing concern about the use of non-official communication methods by ministers and some political appointees, whether via personal phones and private emails, or through encrypted chat applications such as WhatsApp:
One insider identified the “particular anxiety” being WhatsApp, and the fear that several months of messages with senior government and international figures might have been read by a third party using malware, though investigations continue.
Panicked officials issued Truss with a new phone and number, but the old one was retained so as to avoid alarm, with messages to the old phone monitored.
It is thought to be unlikely that Truss would have used her personal phone for secret or top secret business but that even casual WhatsApp messages could be revelatory.
Peter Ricketts, a former national security adviser, said such inside gossip could be useful intelligence for a hostile state. “You can’t stop ministers talking to their mates. But they have to be conscious that talk and chat can give away sensitive info about the state of the government,” he said.
Lord Ricketts added the alarm over Truss’s mobile emphasised the need for ministers to act cautiously with their phones. “The security community cannot emphasise enough that you have to be really careful in what you text. You have to assume that others are listening in,” he said.
Dave Penman, the head of the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, said there was something of a “wild west” culture within government over such issues, as also shown by Braverman’s use of a personal Gmail account.
“There is no interest in government to sort this out,” he said. “The whole thing around the use of private messaging and email is really badly regulated, and there’s not really any interest for ministers in setting up processes.
“Some departments are doing it better than others, and some are trying. But unless you’ve got the political will to clamp down on this stuff, it won’t happen. This is how they want to operate – they want to avoid scrutiny.”
Bob Kerslake, a former head of the UK civil service, said ministers were increasingly aware of the potential security risks of using private communication channels, which made actions such as Braverman’s all the more hard to understand.
“If this sort of thing happened with a civil servant there would be disciplinary action, no question about it,” Lord Kerslake said.
“If you resign but then come back within a week, what you essentially say is that it’s OK. That message gets through to other ministers, and potentially to civil servants as well. You need a high level of discipline on this now.”
Lord Dannatt told Times Radio: “Our leaders must be sufficiently disciplined to only communicate through authorised means which themselves are encrypted and are secure.
“We’ve seen it with Suella Braverman apparently sending messages that she shouldn’t have done on a personal email, and now we get it with Liz Truss.
“This, frankly, is not good enough. If these people aspire to be in senior positions, positions of leadership, they’ve got to be disciplined, they’ve got to follow the rules, or, frankly, we’ll put other people in their place.”
Dannatt added that the strict rules on communications were there for a reason.
It is time for this government to get its act together for all our sakes.
According to the Guardian, intelligence experts and former officials have warned that Ministers risk creating “wild west” conditions in matters of national security by the increased use of personal email and phones to conduct confidential business.
The paper says that there is growing concern about the use of non-official communication methods by ministers and some political appointees, whether via personal phones and private emails, or through encrypted chat applications such as WhatsApp:
One insider identified the “particular anxiety” being WhatsApp, and the fear that several months of messages with senior government and international figures might have been read by a third party using malware, though investigations continue.
Panicked officials issued Truss with a new phone and number, but the old one was retained so as to avoid alarm, with messages to the old phone monitored.
It is thought to be unlikely that Truss would have used her personal phone for secret or top secret business but that even casual WhatsApp messages could be revelatory.
Peter Ricketts, a former national security adviser, said such inside gossip could be useful intelligence for a hostile state. “You can’t stop ministers talking to their mates. But they have to be conscious that talk and chat can give away sensitive info about the state of the government,” he said.
Lord Ricketts added the alarm over Truss’s mobile emphasised the need for ministers to act cautiously with their phones. “The security community cannot emphasise enough that you have to be really careful in what you text. You have to assume that others are listening in,” he said.
Dave Penman, the head of the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, said there was something of a “wild west” culture within government over such issues, as also shown by Braverman’s use of a personal Gmail account.
“There is no interest in government to sort this out,” he said. “The whole thing around the use of private messaging and email is really badly regulated, and there’s not really any interest for ministers in setting up processes.
“Some departments are doing it better than others, and some are trying. But unless you’ve got the political will to clamp down on this stuff, it won’t happen. This is how they want to operate – they want to avoid scrutiny.”
Bob Kerslake, a former head of the UK civil service, said ministers were increasingly aware of the potential security risks of using private communication channels, which made actions such as Braverman’s all the more hard to understand.
“If this sort of thing happened with a civil servant there would be disciplinary action, no question about it,” Lord Kerslake said.
“If you resign but then come back within a week, what you essentially say is that it’s OK. That message gets through to other ministers, and potentially to civil servants as well. You need a high level of discipline on this now.”
Lord Dannatt told Times Radio: “Our leaders must be sufficiently disciplined to only communicate through authorised means which themselves are encrypted and are secure.
“We’ve seen it with Suella Braverman apparently sending messages that she shouldn’t have done on a personal email, and now we get it with Liz Truss.
“This, frankly, is not good enough. If these people aspire to be in senior positions, positions of leadership, they’ve got to be disciplined, they’ve got to follow the rules, or, frankly, we’ll put other people in their place.”
Dannatt added that the strict rules on communications were there for a reason.
It is time for this government to get its act together for all our sakes.
