Silent Courier: U.K. intelligence service MI6 launches dark web portal to recruit foreign spies

The headquarters of the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, is seen in London on July 3. Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, is launching a new online portal called Silent Courier. (Credit: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, is launching a new online portal called Silent Courier, aimed at using the dark web to entice potential spies to send it secrets, particularly targeting Russia.

The service will rely on the Tor internet browser, which will allow anonymous access to a secure MI6 messaging platform. Instructions for using Silent Courier will be given on MI6’s new YouTube channel at 2am Eastern Time Friday.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the U.K. was “bolstering their efforts with cutting-edge tech so MI6 can recruit new spies for the U.K. - in Russia and around the world.”

The service will require users to take significant precautions of their own to safely use it. A press release announcing the launch from the U.K. Foreign Office, which handles MI6’s communications, said: “MI6 advises individuals accessing its portal to use trustworthy VPNs and devices not linked to themselves, to mitigate risks which exist in some countries.”

The launch comes after the outgoing chief of MI6, Sir Richard Moore, used a rare public speech in Prague in July 2023 to appeal to Russian citizens to spy for the U.K. In the same year, the CIA launched a similar online mechanism to Silent Courier, also on the Tor network, also appealing for potential spies to pass them secret information. Moore will use his valedictory speech - delivered this Friday in Istanbul where he served as ambassador - to launch the new service. “Our virtual door is open to you,” he will say.

While the precise technology behind Silent Courier is unclear, sis.gov.uk, MI6’s website, does similarly encourage potential informants to use Tor and a VPN to contact them, and provides an online form to fill in. It tells users to create a new email address they can reply to. “Do not use a name, phone number or other data linked to your real identity when creating this account,” it adds.

Friday’s launch is accompanied by a slickly produced video harking back to the image of MI6’s espionage most closely associated with the fictional spy James Bond – walks in the deep forest, and lone agents driving an SUV in the desert. The video shows a mock-up of the Silent Courier service on a smartphone, with the phrase “transfer information” written in Russian, as a file apparently uploads.

Moore is leaving as “C” after five years in the job, and will be succeeded next month by Blaise Metriwelli, the first woman to hold the role. Metriwelli was formerly “Q,” the director in MI6 responsible for innovation and technology, and had previously worked in the Middle East and Europe.