I was interested in what Sir Christopher Meyer (HM Ambassador to the United States between 1997 and 2003) had to say about WikiLeaks on BBC Question Time last night.
I understand from what he was saying that the United States created a massive ‘intranet’ to share intelligence from around the world between their agencies as part of their response to 11th September 2001 attacks. They wanted a clearer picture of the emerging threats to the United States.
He suggests that over two and half million people have access to this ‘intranet’ and implies that leaks were inevitable.
I feel that there is an important lesson here for any government or commercial enterprise that tries to build massive databases. The more people who have access, the more likely there is to be a leak.