Google Street View Shows 'Secret' SAS Base In Major Security Breach

Mail Online:

Military chiefs and MPs blasted internet giant Google today after its Street View service included detailed pictures of the headquarters of the SAS.

Internet users can peer around the entrance to Credenhill, Herefordshire, which has never before appeared on maps for security reasons.

Read the whole story: Mail Online

Comments

[Keith Mayass]

04:26 PM on 03/24/2010

of all the places a group could attack (bank, jewelry...) , why would you go after a special forces places.

they are more than likely to have bigger guns than you can get....

[RTIII]

02:51 PM on 03/24/2010

If you can see it from the street, maybe it isn't so secret, is it?
.

[jalaroc]

10:36 AM on 03/23/2010

This is the same sort of stupidity that allowed area 51 to become such a mecca. One wonders if this is more about creating a mystique about a "secret" unit or actual security. If people KNOW about it, you're already compromised.

[OkieIntellectual]

11:29 PM on 03/22/2010

Is it Google's fault that the SAS decided to have their HQ right next to public roads? No, I don't believe it is. If they don't want photographs of the HQ, do like the US JSOC and Delta does, put your HQ in the middle of a secure military base. I'm sorry, but the SAS can suck it on this one.

[SystemLink]

10:40 PM on 03/22/2010

I have no idea why Google doesn't just sit down with the Governments and go over their pictures. If there is anything of worry, just remove it.

it shouldn't be tough and Google should respect each Governments wish for certain buildings.

[HuffGeist]

10:23 PM on 03/22/2010

I'm shocked at their lack of having a secret base hidden in an active volcano!

[Cryostatic]

07:46 AM on 03/23/2010

Indeed. Nobody knows how to build secret bases anymore.

[planetjeffy]

08:53 PM on 03/22/2010

shame on google for exposing the secret base
that everybody knows about

[flhu]

06:23 PM on 03/22/2010

This line caught my eye: "The footage is simply not acceptable during a time of perceived terrorism."

"Perceived terrorism."
Whose perception? ...and could they tell me when they stop being so scared.

[jcd8822]

06:14 PM on 03/22/2010

Did they have a sign posted on the fence stating it was a secret place and pictures should not be taken?

[sixyfivepercentwater]

04:40 PM on 03/22/2010

The Mail is known for being an alarmist rag, and the HPo is just fanning the flames.

[floodberg]

04:38 PM on 03/22/2010

There's Google, making friends wherever it goes. After all, should Google have to be concerned with UK or US security? Of course not, a huge international internet information source, google is too big to shut out of UK markets.

[sixyfivepercentwater]

03:47 PM on 03/22/2010

Something which is too precious to be photographed obviously needs to be hidden. In England, for example, they could hide their secret institutions in dentist offices or somewhere else Brits never go.

[anthonytaurus]

03:49 PM on 03/22/2010

HAHAHAHAHA lol..

[pat2 718]

03:13 PM on 03/22/2010

So...if letting terrorists know about these facilities is dangerous, why are the complaints about the pictures being made by British officials to news organizations and not privately to Google? Aren't the public complaints just alerting the bad guys to the pictures existence? Or do the people complaining not really consider this serious? Are they just posturing?

'The question is, why risk a very serious security breach for the sake of having a picture on a website?'

Why announce the security breach to all and sundry just to get your name in the paper?

[Tom95134]

01:27 PM on 03/22/2010

I'm sorry, I think this is very funny. Just why would any government build its supposedly secret SAS facility this close to a public road?

One has to assume that a lot of people know the SAS headquarters is there. There just isn't that much that can be hidden anymore because there are too many companies taking satellite pictures of the earth and the approach of Google is if you can drive by from a public road then short of "peeping" into windows what is along the road is public knowledge. Take a look what you get if you Google Map the CIA. One street view position shows the entrance.

Governments try to impose secrecy mainly to keep the amateurs from finding out too much and, just as importantly, to keep it hidden from their own citizens (who usually act like good citizens and don't press too hard at finding out).

[Kuuba]

12:04 PM on 03/22/2010

Screw Google, they're becoming too big now and too intrusive.

[Amishguy]

02:45 PM on 03/22/2010

How?