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  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

MI6 reveals 'Silent Courier' dark web portal upgrade it hopes will help it recruit new spies

(2025/09/19)


The UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, aka MI6, has created a dark web portal called “Silent Courier” that it hopes would-be foreign informants will find a suitably secure means of sharing secrets.

MI6 revealed the portal in a late Thursday statement that [1]reportedly included a quote from Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who said the portal will help “recruit new spies for the UK - in Russia and around the world.”

Instructions for interested spies appeared earlier today in eight languages on MI6’s new [2]YouTube channel in a [3]video that opens with an unidentified narrator saying “For over a hundred years, the bedrock of MI6's work has been face to face. Meeting, sharing insights, making connections.”

[4]

“Now we can make those connections even more securely online using our upgraded dark web portal, Silent Courier,” the narrator continues. “Benefiting from the anonymity built into Tor, Silent Courier allows anyone, anywhere in the world to make safe direct contact with MI6.”

[5]

[6]

“So if you have access to sensitive information relating to global instability or hostile intelligence activity, you can now contact MI6 and share this securely.”

Here’s the (silent) instructions vid. It recommends contacting MI6 over Tor at mi6govukbfxe5pzxqw3otzd2t4nhi7v6x4dljwba3jmsczozcolx2vqd.onion.

[7]

If accessing Tor is not possible – some nations block it – MI6 suggests using a free trial of a commercial VPN to reach its [8]Contact Us form , and providing an email address you establish just for chats with spies.

Don’t use a credit card when signing up for that VPN, or any information that could identify you, friends, or family. Do obtain a clean device that’s up to date with recent patches, and use a browser’s incognito mode to prevent recording a browsing history.

[9]Youtube Video

[10]UK's Ministry of Defence pins hopes on AI to stop the next massive email blunder

[11]As Amazon takes over the Bond franchise, we submit our scripts for the next flick

[12]MI6, CIA using generative AI to combat tech-driven enemies

[13]UK cyberspies warn ransomware crews targeting law firms

MI6’s vids say the agency “will carefully consider all information passed to us.”

So hello there, real_James_Bond_007_honest@gmail.com, welcome to MI6’s new informant recruitment program. The Register hopes you’re really interested in helping His Majesty’s government to keep the nation secure, and not a troll or a minion sent by Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin to DDOS MI6 by sending it a flood of information so tantalizing its operatives are overwhelmed.

[14]

Or maybe that’s one point of the exercise, in the hope that malicious foreign actors who use the site inadvertently reveal some of their tradecraft. ®

Get our [15]Tech Resources



[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/18/europe/mi6-silent-courier-dark-web-spies-intelligence-intl

[2] https://www.youtube.com/@mi6

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkOUH8d8UQY

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aM0pt4ZQk6iRcUzdhmfQkgAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aM0pt4ZQk6iRcUzdhmfQkgAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aM0pt4ZQk6iRcUzdhmfQkgAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aM0pt4ZQk6iRcUzdhmfQkgAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[8] https://www.sis.gov.uk/contact-us-form/

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYB129pGq0k&t=21s

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/06/mod_taps_aussie_ai_shop/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/21/amazon_bond_franchise_sold/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/mi6_cia_genai/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/23/ransomware_law_firms/

[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aM0pt4ZQk6iRcUzdhmfQkgAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



Mike007

Hello MI6, Just checking in. No updates to report.

- AC, because obviously I wouldn't want to blow my cover.

Oh, crap. Anyone have video instructions on how to make my posts here anonymous?

DS999

Username checks out

Homo.Sapien.Floridanus

Hello AC.. or should I say AUSTIN POWERS! We have a listening device implanted on you or did you think your proctologist couldn’t be bought, hmmmmm?

Dr. Evil

Yet Another Anonymous coward

To meet the UK's online child safety rules you will also need to take a selfie and upload a copy of your government issue ID

Anonymous Coward

coming soon...

...in partnership with the Post Office weighing your balls for greater accuracy.

You have nothing to hide, flop your balls out in a Post Office today!

"You claim to be 76, you look over 18, but if you don't mind, please pop your balls on the scale sir, that's right, wind them in, all the way up your trouser leg, my word what a saggy set of bollocks you have sir, you'd think we could use that as an indicator, but unfortunately Kier Starmer & Peter Mandelson (especially Mr Mandelson, he's the expert) need a picture as well, they personally assess each request. Mandelson also ranks your schnuts on a 10 scale, it's not required data now, but researchers are looking for a way to incorporate it. Based on what I'm seeing, he wouldn't give you 1, but he might rank you a 2...just a bit of Post Office humour there sir. Just to inform you sir, Mandelson has been lobbying for a more advanced less intrusive system, verify once and your verification will be valid for 5 years, they're setting up a facility in Hampstead called 'The George Michael Building', there will be an array of private cubicles, you simply turn up, take a handkerchief with a number on it, slip it in one of your rear pockets being careful to leave a little exposed so it can be seen by an official, wait for one of the officials to look you up and down and finally guide you to a cubicle, then simply pop your chap through a hole in the cubicle and the official will do the rest from the other side, of course it will all be overseen by Peter Mandelson himself".

DancesWithPoultry

I've heard Jim Davidson be funnier.

Bond, don't ever break into my house again

Blazde

.. use the bloody onion address next time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5cH6oZ1a-8

Free holdall for every successful applicant.

Like a badger

Just sayin'

Brief History Of Linux (#14)
Military Intelligence: Not an oxymoron in 1969

It was the Department Of Defense that commissioned the ARPANET in 1969, a
rare example of the US military breaking away from its official motto,
"The Leading Edge Of Yesterday's Technology(tm)".

In the years leading up to 1969, packet switching technology had evolved
enough to make the ARPANET possible. Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc.
received the ARPA contract in 1968 for packet switching "Interface Message
Processors". US Senator Edward Kennedy, always on the ball, sent a
telegram to BBN praising them for their non-denominational "Interfaith"
Message Processors, an act unsurpassed by elected representatives until Al
Gore invented the Internet years later.

While ARPANET started with only four nodes in 1969, it evolved rapidly.
Email was first used in 1971; by 1975 the first mailing list, MsgGroup,
was created by Steve Walker when he sent a "First post!" messages to it.
In 1979 all productive use of ARPANET ceased when USENET and the first MUD
were created. In 1983, when the network surpassed 1,000 hosts, a study
showed that 90.4% of all traffic was devoted to email and USENET flame wars.