MI5 tapped innocent people's phone numbers in secret surveillance mix-up



MI5 agents mistakenly listened to innocent people’s phone calls after writing down the wrong numbers in secret surveillance operations, a report has revealed.

There were at least 30 cases where officers from the Security Service and the Serious Organised Crime Agency tapped the wrong telephones, a review has found.

On grounds of national security, none of the victims have been identified or told their phones were wrongly intercepted.



Surveillance: Officers from the Security Service and the Serious Organised Crime Agency tapped the wrong telephones in at least 30 cases (file picture)

But the report by the Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy makes clear the cases involved were only a fraction of the thousands of interceptions authorised by Ministers each year.



Sir Paul’s report said that in January 2010 the Security Service made at least two errors ‘where an incorrect digit was used when warrantry paperwork was completed, due to human error’.

Report: Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy

‘This resulted in incorrect phone numbers being intercepted. On each occasion, the officer involved was briefed again on the importance of accuracy and cross-checking when completing warrantry applications.’

MI5 also wrongly acquired data belonging to 134 phone numbers following a failure in software, the report added.

‘These errors were caused by a formatting fault on an electronic spreadsheet which altered the last three digits of each of the telephone numbers to “000”,’ the report said. Sir Paul said that the intelligence agency destroyed the material and fixed the ‘technical fault’.

Search histories from another 927 internet connections were obtained by the Security Service without authorisation from sufficiently senior staff.

The report said an incorrect setting on the agency’s computer software meant officers ranked more junior than the law demands had given approval. But Sir Paul ruled that the requests were still ‘necessary and proportionate’.