Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Tracking & Law Enforcement

Britain’s GCHQ Spies Are on Twitter, Officially

GCHQ, Britain’s secret eavesdropping agency, joined Twitter on Monday, emerging from the shadows with a simple message of “Hello, world.”

The cyber-intelligence listening post became the first of the country’s spy agencies to join the online social networking service.

GCHQ, Britain’s secret eavesdropping agency, joined Twitter on Monday, emerging from the shadows with a simple message of “Hello, world.”

The cyber-intelligence listening post became the first of the country’s spy agencies to join the online social networking service.

The Government Communications Headquarters has previously kept itself to itself but is moving towards greater transparency following revelations by fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who claimed GCHQ was conducting bulk data collection.

“It’s a big step for the organisation as we become more open about the work we do to keep Britain safe,” said an unnamed GCHQ spokesman.

“We want GCHQ to be more accessible and to help the public understand more about our work.

“We also want to reach out to the technical community and add our voice to social media conversations about technology”, along with maths and cyber security.

The Twitter account will be used to highlight events, publications, blogs and opinion pieces.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

“Hello, world” was chosen as the first tweet as it is often the first thing computer whizzes learn to write in coding programmes.

GCHQ is based in a giant, ring-shaped building nicknamed “the doughnut” in the spa town of Cheltenham in southwest England.

Among the few dozen Twitter accounts being openly followed by GCHQ was the official James Bond one, along with government, law enforcement and royal accounts.

The US Central Intelligence Agency wasted no time in welcoming GCHQ to Twitter.

The agency’s debut on the platform sparked some humorous tweets.

One Twitter user wrote: “‘GCHQ is now following you’ is going to really freak some people out.”

Another said: “GCHQ joins Twitter — as if they weren’t already here.”

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.

Cybercrime

The FBI dismantled the network of the prolific Hive ransomware gang and seized infrastructure in Los Angeles that was used for the operation.

Ransomware

The Hive ransomware website has been seized as part of an operation that involved law enforcement in 10 countries.

Cybercrime

Spanish Court agreed to extradite Joseph James O’Connor to he U.S., who allegedly took part in the July 2020 hacking of Twitter accounts of...

Ransomware

US government reminds the public that a reward of up to $10 million is offered for information on cybercriminals, including members of the Hive...

Privacy

Employees of Chinese tech giant ByteDance improperly accessed data from social media platform TikTok to track journalists in a bid to identify the source...

Cybercrime

A hacker who reportedly posed as the CEO of a financial institution claims to have obtained access to the more than 80,000-member database of...

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant Citrix on Tuesday scrambled out an emergency patch to cover a zero-day flaw in its networking product line and warned that...