MI5 website hacked

Hacked website

Part of the MI5's website has been hacked in an attempt to steal visitor's identities, it emerged last night.

According to reports, a group of hackers calling themselves "Team Elite" were not only attempting to steal personal details but also passing on viruses to users' machines.

The Conservative MP Patrick Mercer told the Daily Express last night: "Having potentially highly-classified information available to hackers is deeply concerning. The identity of agents and informers in terror groups such as Al Qaeda are held by MI5."

IT PRO contacted the Home Office who said the problem was limited to the search engine, which is a separate application on a separate server from the rest of the website.

A spokesperson said: "MI5 take security very seriously. Their website is secure and hosted in a high-security environment."

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.