There would have been a collective churning of stomachs in five countries, including our own, as news broke of a suspected mole in their midst.

Cameron Ortis was no low-level employee with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

He was a director-general with the RCMP's intelligence unit, and has been charged with violating national security laws.

He had the highest possible security clearance with access to the identities of all of Canada's undercover police and overseas agents and a deep understanding of the cases they were working on.

Not a man you want offering information to criminals or foreign governments.

But the fear is that is what has happened.

'I have information'

The charges against Mr Ortis, who was arrested last Friday, include "the unauthorised communication of special operational information" and possessing a device or software "useful for concealing the content of information for surreptitiously communicating, obtaining or retaining information".

That last reference may well relate to a Canadian-based company, Phantom Secure, with strong links to Australia.

The company's chief executive and US-based underworld figure, Vincent Ramos, was sentenced to nine years in a Californian prison related to the supply of thousands of encrypted phones used by criminals worldwide for drug and other deals.

Phantom Secure was a criminal enterprise that provided secure communications to high-level drug traffickers and other criminal organisation leaders. ( Supplied: FBI.gov )

Police estimate Phantom Secure made about $US80 million ($AU116 million) selling systems allowing criminals to "go dark".

Of the 20,000 phones allegedly sold, it's thought half were in Australian hands.

When our federal police seized one of the phones from a suspected drug smuggler back in 2016, it led to an FBI investigation that pointed to Mr Ramos and then back to Mr Ortis.

Mr Ortis allegedly contacted Mr Ramos offering sensitive information.

"You don't know me," he is reported to have said in an email to Mr Ramos.

"I have information I'm confident you will find very valuable."

A secret underworld phone network

What made the Phantom phones so valuable to criminals was that they were encrypted so they couldn't be hacked by law enforcement agencies.

The email systems were also protected so it meant only those with the special phones could communicate with one another without fear of the information getting out.

The phones were allegedly used by organised crime syndicates for everything from planning hits to money laundering transactions.

One device was involved in the importation of huge amounts of drugs into Australia.

Another advantage of the phones were they could be programmed to act as a tracking device, handy for keeping tabs on drug runners and for locating and killing informants.

Brenda Lucki, the RCMP commissioner, said Mr Ortis has "access to intelligence coming from our allies both domestically and internationally". ( Reuters: Chris Wattie )

Precisely what Mr Ortis might have been offering is not clear, but he allegedly had terabytes of material found in a raid on his home.

It would be of deep concern if classified information was available on criminal investigations.

But it would be an even greater worry if that included details of spying operations that may have involved the Five Eyes nations.

Five Eyes fears

Under the Five Eyes security agreement the governments of Australia, Canada, Britain, the United States and New Zealand swap sensitive information ranging from transnational criminal activity to nefarious state-sponsored spying.

The basis of the whole arrangement is trust — an assurance that each nation's security loops are closed and totally secure.

But with the arrest of Ortis come the question — if he did it, what information might have been sold and to whom?

Canada is part of the Five Eyes intelligence network along with Australia, New Zealand the UK and the US. ( Reuters: Ben Nelms )

It's early days in the investigation but you can be sure our security agencies are working overtime trying to answer those questions.

They might be concerned target nations were given the lists of Canadian, and possibly Five Eyes agents, operating inside their countries. Or details of covert operations and surveillance of foreign agents or interests within the Five Eyes club.

'Extremely unsettling'

It's a horrifying thought for security bosses and it would not be the first time the arrangement has been compromised by insiders.

Brenda Lucki, the RCMP Commissioner, described the allegations "as extremely unsettling".

"Mr Ortis has access to information the Canadian intelligence community possessed," she said, adding, "he also has access to intelligence coming from our allies both domestically and internationally".

That's us.

The unanswered questions include motivation, recipients and degree of possible damage.

The safest systems rely on the people guarding the information.

When it also involved secrets from five nations, it becomes a far bigger problem.

Just how serious, we will probably never know, but the founding principal of the Five Eyes agreement — trust — will have inevitably been shaken.