Govt staff taught social snooping
$112,000 contract offers guide to using fake profiles to gather information
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has hired a security firm to increase staff skills in using fake social media profiles to gather intelligence.
Among techniques offered are harvesting information from social networks, creating back-stories for false online personae and creating dossiers on people and groups.
When informed of the training by the Herald, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said senior ministers would be briefed on the issue when they returned to work at the end of the month.
“Kiwis should be able to go about their daily business without the fear of bureaucrats peering into their social media,” he said.
Details of the $112,000 contract with Wellington firm ZX Security Ltd were released on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) website on December 18.
Like other documents about the ministry’s security operations, they were released the day State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes put out a highly critical report into the use of external security consultants by government agencies.
The contract, signed in December 2017 and running until March 2021, is for the delivery of courses on advanced social media search training. Participants are taught how to gather information from social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Perhaps worryingly for government employees subject to the Official Information Act, the training includes how to send anonymous SMS and email messages. MBIE staff can also learn how to extract metadata from images, including GPS co-ordinates and device information such as mobile phone and camera models, and create dossiers.
The ministry has responsibility for government portfolios including immigration, building and housing, and tourism. A spokesperson yesterday said the contract was still in operation
Kiwis should be able to go about their daily business without the fear of bureaucrats peering into their social media. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones
but the ministry had strict controls on the use of social media for verification and investigation.
About 70 staff in areas including Immigration NZ, Radio Spectrum Management and the Immigration Advisers Authority had completed the one-day course but no staff had so far done optional modules which included harvesting information.
The spokesperson did not directly respond to questions about why staff underwent the training.
However, the contract states the objective would ensure staff were kept safe while using social media for work, increase their knowledge of social media intelligence and introduce them to the latest techniques and tools to extract data.
The spokesperson said as a result of the State Services Commission’s report into the use of external investigators, MBIE was taking steps to ensure it was responding fully to the inquiry’s recommendations, including complying with Commissioner Hughes’ new standards for information-gathering.
Shane Jones said the circumstances where such training may be useful was in keeping on top of “dodgy student visas”, referring to cases where international students had used student visas as a back door to residency.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Ombudsman said information created by officials using social media as part of their work would be subject to the Official Information Act.
Hughes was scathing in his December response to government agencies using external investigation firms, calling the actions of some “an affront to democracy”.