A listing for an applicant with prior experience of sniper rifles and suited to those “who like their martinis shaken and not stirred” has appeared on a government job site.

Nobody’s Sure Why A Job Listing For A Hitman Was On A British Government Website

Jenifer O’Mahony, The Telegraph

Flickr / sntgmdm

A call for candidates for the “Target Elimination Specialist” post, with a job reference code of 007, remained on the DirectGov website for at least an hour after Twitter users began to post links to it.

The job description had all the hallmarks of a James Bond-style position, requiring “particularly skilled professionals who are prepared to work on a non-attributable basis” to deal with “people whose continued existence poses a risk to the effective conduct of public order.”

International travel to seek out the individuals who “need to be removed” was part of the package, and a candidate with few distinguishing features preferred to blend in with new identities where appropriate.

Other desirable attributes included jobseekers with prior military experience, “particularly in the use of sniper rifles,” and a £50-60,000 salary would be complemented by free equipment including passports, special watches, jet packs, mini-submarines and guns.

If candidates were still hoping their dream job had finally arrived, the note that the role was “particularly appropriate for those who like their martinis shaken and not stirred” confirmed that MI6 are unlikely to have radically altered their recruitment process.

The Cabinet Office was contacted for comment this afternoon.

Investigation launched after government employee posts fake MI6 job

A listing for an applicant with prior experience of sniper rifles and suited to those “who like their martinis shaken and not stirred” was blamed on a government employee and is now being investigated, it emerged tonight.

The job posting on the DirectGov website earlier today

By Jennifer O’Mahony

A call for candidates for the “Target Elimination Specialist” post, with a job reference code of 007, remained on the DirectGov website for at least an hour today after Twitter users began to post links to it.

The job description had all the hallmarks of a James Bond-style position, requiring “particularly skilled professionals who are prepared to work on a non-attributable basis” to deal with “people whose continued existence poses a risk to the effective conduct of public order.”

International travel to seek out the individuals who “need to be removed” was part of the package, and a candidate with few distinguishing features preferred to blend in with new identities where appropriate.

Other desirable attributes included jobseekers with prior military experience, “particularly in the use of sniper rifles,” and a £50-60,000 salary would be complemented by free equipment including passports, special watches, jet packs, mini-submarines and guns.

If candidates were still hoping their dream job had finally arrived, the note that the role was “particularly appropriate for those who like their martinis shaken and not stirred” confirmed that MI6 are unlikely to have radically altered their recruitment process.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Work and Pensions said tonight that an investigation had been launched into how the site – which posts government jobs – had allowed the fake listing to slip through.

She said: “It is disappointing that somebody would want to post a false advert when people are looking for real jobs.

“It has now been removed.”

Related articles

• Job listing for MI6 ‘elimination specialist’ appears on government website (telegraph.co.uk)
• Jobcentre advertises for ‘hitman’ to kill undesirables for the Government after staff fail to notice it was a fake (dailymail.co.uk)
• Fake 007 job advert leaves civil servants shaken and stirred (itv.com)
• government jobs website has ‘hitman’ advert (thesun.co.uk)
• Budding James Bonds wanted: Pranksters fool government job website into posting spoof advert for MI6 spy (mirror.co.uk)
• Fake job advert for would-be Bond (express.co.uk)
• Fake job advert for would-be Bond (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
• Ref 007: Advert for ‘hitman’ found on Government jobs website (thesun.co.uk)
• UK government employee posts fake MI6 Job seeking James-Bond style assassin (sott.net)
• Job listing for MI6 ‘elimination specialist’ appears on government website (lunaticoutpost.com)

Government-issued ID cards for UK citizens might have gone away but the Government sees digital identities from the private sector as the next best thing.

Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It

IT :  Internet News – Social Networks – Security -Internet ID-  Government

Facebook ID will give access to UK government websites

By John E Dunn, Computerworld UK

 

 

The UK Government is pressing ahead with potentially controversial plans that will let citizens to log on to a range of Government services using external digital identities such as Facebook, online banks and mobile phone accounts.Government-issued ID cards for UK citizens might have gone away but the Government sees digital identities from the private sector as the next best thing.

Offered as part of the Identity Assurance (IDA) programme floated in 2011, trusted identities could let people authenticate themselves for tax credits, benefits, car tax payments, passport applications and even student loans through the one-stop gov.uk website.

In principle, almost any third party could be used as a personal identity as long as they have been passed fit as an IDA provider. Verification would be built into the system in the form of users’ mobile numbers and secondary security questions, reports have said.

The self-assessment and tax sites have not been mentioned by reports from the cabinet Office but applying the same system to this service might require some re-engineering ; at the moment, HMRC’s site uses tax payer reference numbers as the user name.

 

Motivation for the idea includes the 2013-14 roll-out of the universal credit benefit system by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the belief that access to online services won’t work well if users are expected to create yet another login they are likely to forget.”We want to enable people to be able to prove their identity online – if they choose to – without the need for any national, central scheme. This way the citizen remains in charge, not the state,” a Cabinet Office spokesperson was quoted as saying.

What that does, of course, is shift the security burden to those sites, which raises obvious security concerns. What if users don’t secure those logins well? Or use one login for a number of sites which are then undermined by a data breach?

 

One answer is introducing two-factor authentication although this doesn’t answer the issue of fake identities set up on third-party sites by criminals. The obvious answer to this is that providers will have to meet a stringent test. Current password systems used to access government services are not inherently secure.The plans have had a mixed reception.

“Governments around the world are rightly looking to social networks as one piece of the identity puzzle,” said Ping Identity director, Andi Hindle.

 

“This move will not only foster the adoption of online Government services, benefiting citizens, but also reduce the risks and costs associated with identity management for the UK Government.”Others had more reservations. “Although this is a fine scheme in principle and is backed by ministers the danger is that it could be side-lined and used as a fig leaf by the data-hungry government departments,” said No2ID general secretary Guy Herbert, quoted in The Independent.

 

Related articles

• Facebook ID will give access to UK government websites (computerworlduk.com)
• Facebook ID will give access to gov.uk websites (computerworld.co.nz)
• UK May Use Facebook Logins for National Identity Scheme (tomshardware.com)
• Facebook accounts could be used to prove identity to access public services (guardian.co.uk)
• UK considers social media logins as official proof of identity (digitaltrends.com)
• National ‘virtual ID card’ scheme set for launch in UK… (independent.co.uk)
• UK considers Facebook logins for access to public services (zdnet.com)
• UK Government’s Bold Move on Digital Identity Is A Wake-Up Call for Many (blogs.gartner.com)
• Facebook log-ins ‘to be used to access Government services’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• National ‘virtual ID card’ scheme set for launch (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)