MI6 agent forgets to delete work records from camera before selling on eBay

We'd swear this had to be some sort of spoof on the impeccable James Bond, but sadly enough, the whole thing is true. A secondhand Nikon Coolpix camera which sold on eBay for a mere £17 ($30) turned out to be a real bargain once its new 28-year old owner completed his first image dump. Along with decidedly decent snaps from his US vacation, he also found a number of "top secret" images, diagrams and sketches that have since been confirmed as MI6 material. We're talking photos of rocket launchers, hand-drawn graphics of terrorist links and all sorts of other information not at all intended for civilian eyes. 'Course, the whole thing could just be the act of one talented Photoshopper, but we highly doubt the agency would be so fortunate.

[Via Digg, image courtesy of WWII Airplane Model]

[Poom @ Oct 1st 2008 1:45AM]

Even if he did delete it, the files can still be recovered as it's on a flash drive... How can they hire someone so stupid?

[black @ Oct 1st 2008 1:52AM]

Why did this camera even leave the agency in the first place if it has such confidential information?

[linuxamp @ Oct 1st 2008 2:03AM]

Engadget readers know how to securely erase digital media. Last time I checked no Engadget readers were martial arts masters with expertise in espionage, a license to kill and certainly not devilishly handsome and charming.

[Plothole @ Oct 1st 2008 2:28AM]

@black

Yeah, the only way you'd think this would leave is as a pile of melted plastic and silicon.

[Valicore @ Oct 1st 2008 2:54AM]

@linuxamp:

Speak for yourself :P

[BananaBoat @ Oct 1st 2008 6:57AM]

Oh man, talk about a rock and a hard place. You get the camera, and it's got top secret crap on it. Your choices are A: Say nothing, delete the pictures, throw it in the river and hope to god that noone remembers there were pictures on the camera or B: Turn the thing over and hope you didn't see any James-Bond-Style "For your eyes only" crap that gets you ball tortured by a French Algerian (worst five minutes in bond history...). Personally I'd choose A, because I'd feel obligated to spare Queen and Country an embarrassment like this one.

I think it's a gross understatement that the MI6 officer responsible faces "The sack". I'd say he probably faces a hell of a lot more than "The sack".

[OneLove @ Oct 1st 2008 12:49PM]

That 007 is up to his shenanigans again.

[black @ Oct 1st 2008 1:48AM]

Well somebody is down a job after this...

[Dan @ Oct 1st 2008 2:01AM]

Not right likely! This was intentionally "leaked" in this manner to make people think MI6 knows anything confidential about terrorists, rockets etc.

The illusion of security my friends.

[Valicore @ Oct 1st 2008 2:57AM]

You know what's sad? I don't know whether you're joking or not - I'd believe that...

[Cunthor @ Oct 1st 2008 2:03AM]

Hehe, MI6 is endorsed by Nikon :)

[linuxamp @ Oct 1st 2008 2:05AM]

Shouldn't MI6 have some ultra tiny, super hi-res, waterproof, crush proof, encrypted camera with instant satellite uplink? Either there have been some serious budget cuts or Q is just slacking.

[Samboini @ Oct 1st 2008 4:03PM]

What, because you'd expect to know about it?! It's all about secrets!

[Backlin @ Oct 1st 2008 10:52PM]

Q retired.

[Craig B. @ Oct 1st 2008 2:09AM]

You twits, this was not a mistake - this is installment 1 of a marketing campaign for their new Facebook recruiting drive!

[)law( @ Oct 1st 2008 2:12AM]

Secret agent double 0 n00b

[Lalo Martins @ Oct 1st 2008 2:20AM]

As black said... it's idiotic that the camera was even sold. These people should be issued "company" cameras, which naturally belong to the Queen and can never be sold. In fact, they probably are, and this agent either "stole" one and sold it, or, more likely, used his personal camera for work. (Or, third possibility, swapped flash cards between his personal and work cameras, and forgot to swap them back.) Either way... pretty stupid. Bad show dude, and bad show MI6.

[nighttime @ Oct 1st 2008 2:39AM]

yuh, he stole it to make a massive financial gain of SEVENTEEN POUNDS.

[Dylan @ Oct 1st 2008 2:26AM]

Bond: "You know you're cleverer than you look."

Q: "Still, better than looking cleverer than you are."

[Reader @ Oct 1st 2008 2:27AM]

You guys left out the outrageous part that slashdot and the linker article covered. This guy went to turn in the camera to the police, but was ignored as they didn't believe him. Later they raided his house and took the camera and his computer. Reward for being a good citizen.

[Gooner @ Oct 1st 2008 3:11AM]

Just check out the article as published in the Sun newspaper in the UK

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1749217.ece

Now have a look at the slideshow to see some of the items supposedly on the memory stick!

I nearly wet my pants laughing only the Sun could come up with this crap!!!!

[midiwall @ Oct 1st 2008 3:18AM]

right... Exactly! This is The Sun people! They're worse than The Enquirer!

[djpurpose @ Oct 1st 2008 5:20AM]

Check out #4 lol. Brings back memories of the 90's.

[Tim Spence @ Oct 1st 2008 5:45AM]

I also love the way they frequently refer to MI6 as M16. They've done it once in that article, that I've seen, and frequently do it on others.

[Troels C @ Oct 1st 2008 6:09AM]

Speaking of #4... Why the heck would an agent waste time setting up a Claris product shot, just to cap the screen? I'm puzzled here...

[Atanas Boev @ Oct 1st 2008 8:00AM]

Woohoo, #4 is a spyshot of the next gen iPhone!

[wickedpheonix @ Oct 1st 2008 5:25PM]

Response to #2:

Hey, you with the big rocket launcher: let me send a picture of you so I can send it to your wife, eh? Alright.... turn a bit to the left.... shoulders square.... *click* alright nice picture m8, you sure look like a big bad terrorist there with your big rocket launcher..... yeah that's what your wife said....

[ChronoZaga @ Oct 1st 2008 3:18AM]

How did THIS make it to engadget? It's from THE SUN, the worlds most fake newspaper.

[Ian @ Oct 1st 2008 3:42AM]

because Sun is not the only news to cover it...

[Adrian @ Oct 1st 2008 3:28AM]

I thought they used Sony gear

[Kevlar @ Oct 1st 2008 4:42AM]

Ahahaha! So I wasn't alone in noticing that Casino Royale was just slightly better than 2hr, $150 million Sony Advertisement.

[Wwhat @ Oct 1st 2008 4:19AM]

Bullshit The Sun stories on engadget? Did you not check the link and see the stock advertisement photo's that are supposedly secret MI6 shots? I'm ashamed for engadget and hope this won't happen again.

[djpurpose @ Oct 1st 2008 5:23AM]

I'm not sure where the "one talented Photoshopper" comes in to play. Did you see the slide show? I'm actually glad you posted this story. It's the best laugh I've had all week.

[andy @ Oct 1st 2008 9:29AM]

i always imagined spys used pen-sized cameras. at least Sony cameras, phones and laptops :)

[htd @ Oct 1st 2008 9:32AM]

at least should wait till other media report to bring this to engadget... the sun has tons of more ridiculous stuff than this...

[reido @ Oct 1st 2008 6:40PM]

@ djpurpose...

i'm glad someone else looked at the slideshow, because it is ridiculous. some stack of random papers and "terrorist files" or whatever as the caption. not to mention the last shot, which is obviously some sort of computer ad from the 90s, just take a look at the lighting in that and you know it wasn't some spy photo.

[George @ Oct 2nd 2008 3:04PM]

Ah, there is nothing quite like another country's flop to help me pretend that all is well here in the good old usa. oh wait they just temperaraly lost a camera. Damn, scooter libby still number one intelligance agency screw up. oh well, at least there will be plenty of idiots making youtube video about this.

[mrdelayer @ Oct 4th 2008 12:35AM]

Headline should be, "Blogger forgets to check timestamp on old story before posting on Engadget"