ICM - Leeds Design Agency

So what have we found out in the latest MI6 security breach? The new chief has a penchant for playing frisbee whilst wearing speedos? Great. Maybe they should go back to the old methods of leaving laptops on trains!?

The press had a field-day yesterday, dining out on the revelation that Sir John Sawers, the new head of the MI6, is at the centre of an embarrassing security row after his wife uploaded family photos and personal information onto the social networking website Facebook.

Okay, not such a good move from Mrs. Sawers, but I find it hard to understand how, according to many newspapers with the line ‘dramatic Facebook security leak’, it is Facebook who are to blame.

Personal details were exposed, including the location of the family’s London flat and photographs of the couple’s three children and Sir John’s parents. Mrs. Sawers neglected to take advantage of the security features available in Facebook, meaning that the information was available to the around 200m users, as well as being readily available via a quick search on Google.

It seems very easy to hold the likes of Facebook and Twitter responsible at the moment. Is it that newspapers are feeling threatened by these outlets as an alternative to the traditional news medium? Or is it just the tabloid press?