Spies on Facebook reveal their jobs to all and sundry

BELGIUM’S secret intelligence service looks neither secret nor intelligent after agents revealed their jobs on social media.

Questions were asked in the Brussels Senate about officers at the Surete de l’Etat, the equivalent of Britain’s MI5, who on Facebook and LinkedIn listed their employer as Belgian State Security. ‘‘We don’t know exactly how many people are concerned,’’ Senator Dirk Claes said, adding that the service had admitted at least five people could be identified as national security workers.

The Belgian State Security Service confirmed that ‘‘a simple search . . . brings up people on certain networks who claim to work for or have worked for le Surete de l’Etat. We can neither confirm nor deny that they are members of our service.’’

The agency said a Facebook page in its name was not genuine.

With Nato and the European Union headquartered in Belgium, a senior official said the breach was no joke.

He said: ‘‘The Russian and Chinese intelligence services employ thousands of people. They have the professional resources and the time to look up these cases and use the information that they contain.’’

The Belgian agency said its agents were not barred from social networks, but disciplinary action would be taken against those who breached secrecy rules. The Times