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Westminster honeytrap scandal not a serious ‘national security harm’, ex cyber security chief says
Ciaran Martin downplays scale of the threat and dismisses idea a foreign state was behind the attack that has seen MPs targeted
The Westminster honeytrap scandal will not do “serious” damage to national security, a former spy chief has claimed.
Around 20 Westminster figures including three MPs have been targeted by online profiles using the aliases “Charlie” or “Abi”, which have sent flirtatious messages and in some cases explicit photos.
Leicestershire Police and the Metropolitan Police have launched investigations into the scandal over the past few days and Downing Street has urged affected MPs to contact the police.
William Wragg, the Tory MP for Hazel Grove, quit the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers on Monday after admitting he responded to messages on gay dating app Grindr before sending on phone numbers for parliamentary colleagues, who were subsequently targeted.
But Ciaran Martin, a former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, downplayed the scale of the threat to national security on Tuesday and expressed doubt that a foreign state was behind the attacks.
Mr Martin told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I doubt the security services are panicking about this. You would do a damage assessment, this is a backbench MP, albeit a senior one, a chair of a select committee, but not somebody with access to very sensitive information.
“And so far as we know, and I am on the outside now as well, but as far as we know he did disclose the numbers of other MPs and some of them are understandably furious about that. But that in and of itself will not be a cause of serious national security harm.”
He went on to argue “capable nation states” had already obtained “the numbers of any and every MP, or could acquire them quite easily”.
Asked whether the honeytrap was the work of a foreign state, Mr Martin replied: “Well, it might be but one of the things the Government has developed, I think rightly over the years, is what they call in the jargon ‘an attribution framework’.
“And what that means is essentially, firstly you have to have a high degree of technical confidence, you don’t just throw allegations around against other states without some serious technical proof. And in terms of foreign state cyber attacks – Russia, China, Iran, [and] North Korea being the four most common over the last 25 years – we have developed a detailed knowledge of their tradecraft, what their code looks like and so forth, and that doesn’t apply here.”
Labour and Lib Dem conferences targeted
It came amid claims on Monday night that the suspected honeytrapper was present at the annual Labour Party conference in October.
A number of attendees including an MP and party staffers told the Times they were messaged on Grindr by a profile using the same photographs as “Charlie” and going by the user name M-xl.
The profile was said to have used a photograph of a young man wearing a Levi’s T-shirt and asked alleged targets whether they had slept with journalists and MPs before bragging about having had sex with prominent political figures.
It went on to claim to work for a lobbying organisation and gave specific details about working on a stall in the main hall of the convention centre in Liverpool where the conference took place.
The suspected honeytrapper is also believed to have targeted the Liberal Democrats’ annual gathering, which was held in Bournemouth a fortnight before the Labour conference.
Delegates told Politico they had been targeted by a Grindr account going by the name of ‘Charlie’ and claimed the profile was “very open about wanting to sleep with MPs”.
A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said it was “deeply disturbing” individuals were being targeted and urged anybody affected to contact the police. Labour was contacted for comment.