Slashdot Mirror
UK PM's Aide Loses BlackBerry In Chinese Honeytrap
longacre writes "The Times of London is today reporting a January incident in which a top aide to Prime Minister Gordon Brown discovered his BlackBerry missing from his hotel room after spending the night with an attractive woman who approached him in a Shanghai disco. Seems this was a run-of-the-mill BlackBerry without any encryption, only a simple password lock. The greatest fear is that, even if the device did not contain any sensitive messages at the time, there was likely enough information on board for a hostile intelligence service to snake its way deep into Downing Street's email servers. The aide was 'informally reprimanded.'"
Would he have reported the loss of his virginity?
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
They aren't telling us that Scotland Yard did this deliberately just to see how the Chinese would react.
What the Chinese aren't telling us is they knew this was a trap and reacted accordingly.
What Scotland Yard also isn't telling us is that they knew the Chinese would see the trap and were counting on them to react accordingly.
What the Chinese also aren't telling us ....
oooh my head hurts.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I promise not to carry anything sensitive, and I'll distract the attractive Chinese women for him so his secrets will remain safe!
The woman was not really attractive, he was just desperate.
Seriously, is the woman's attractiveness really pertinent to what happened, and was her attractiveness fact-checked? Or is "attractive Shanghai woman" a British idiom for "prostitute"?
My country doesn't have the budget, frankly. I'm Canadian.
Brown trouser time!
So the article is trouser snake meets honeypot - but it's a trap! Snap! Ow, Blackberries.
Ew, if you could lose a blackberry in that
Chinese Honeypot, I wouldn't stick around.
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
They know what the aide looks like.
ba-dump *tsssh*!
Xenu loves you!
...... the 'woman' picked up ended up being a dude in drag and that aide ended up losing more than his blackberry that night. *Always* remember the package check guys!
Of course. Then the aide will be so busy playing with his blackberry that he won't notice the attractive woman. Of course if he did notice her he'd still be too shy to talk to her.
I like your plan; it's sound.
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
His Blackberry got shanghaied in Shanghai?
Tsktsk.
He should get instructions on how to safely do Penetration Testing of the Chinese secret service. Clearly he forgot to secure the client side properly. Except for that, the article is a tad vague on whether the testing itself went smoothly and he found some holes.
*Ahem*
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
My country doesn't have the attractive women, frankly. I'm Canadian.
There, fixed that for you.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Members of the British Government will now be expecting an increased amount of spam and unsolicited phone salesmen calling to offer V1agra and other products.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
You are so prejudiced. The Chinese don't just copy everything.
Members of the British Government will now be expecting an increased amount of spam and unsolicited phone salesmen calling to offer V1agra and other products.
Will that be because of the data inside the phone or because of the chinese lady's detailed report?
Yeah, he should have just kept it in his own hands.
3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
My guess was that the aide's name was Sebastian and after the recent bi-election there was call for a celebration! *clap hands* Champaign!
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I admit that I *am* xenophobic. That's why I am running VirtualBox!
Ezekiel 23:20
You've clearly never been to Asia. Rest assured you can see many examples of exactly this happening all over Asia
And so begins the great stampede of slashdot readers heading for asia.. ;)
"The aide was 'informally reprimanded.'"
Translation: "Dammit, Nigel, keep it in your bloody shorts next time!"
I'm glad to be wrong, for your sake. Links to pics build Karma, so I'm told :)
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Hungover aide comes in: "It may look like I got drunk, shagged some girl I just met and lost the Blackberry - but really I am the honest victim of an intelligence operation of such genius and cunning that it could happen to anyone".
My country doesn't have the attractive women, frankly. I'm Canadian.
There, fixed that for you.
I just moved to downtown Toronto. I can assure you that you're wrong. Although perhaps we're stockpiling them.
The trouble is, for 9 months of the year, you really can't tell whether they're attractive or not under all that insulation.
Shut up you hoser! They will find out about our stockpiles of attractive WMDs (women of mass distraction) and our plans to release hordes of them to achieve world domination.
Oh, wait, aren't the Blackberry servers already in Canada? Maybe we'll just keep those stockpiles...