What happens when you recruit a bunch of top-tier coders and then let them name software anything they want? With the latest leak from within GCHQ - published on First Look Media earlier this week - we now know the answer is much the same within the security services as it is in the rest of the world: a few puns, a smattering of misogyny, and a bucketload of geeky references.
A screenshot of an internal GCHQ wiki detailing more than 100 projects contains some names that wouldn't be out of place in a conventional military operation. Names such as "Viking Pillage" and "Landing Party" contain oblique references to what the software does – in this case, collecting and auditing data – while others such as "Birdsong" and "Birdstrike" have an obvious theme (those two programmes affect Twitter).
But running throughout are some more idiosyncratic influences, which reveal quite a lot about the attitudes and interests of some of the programmers who work for the intelligence agency. For example:
They have a penchant for misogynist in-jokes
It's a fact of the internet that nearly every two-word phrase in the English language will turn up some sort of sex act when plugged in to slang database Urban Dictionary. Still, the preponderance of sexist nicknames and blue humour suggests that the dark side of geekdom is just as prevalent in GCHQ as the rest of the community. "Angry Pirate", a tool that permanently disables its target's user account, is named after a proposed sex act that involves punching and kicking a woman (or possibly a tamer drinking-game equivalent), while "Stealth Moose" and "Swamp Donkey", the names given to a pair of malicious programs, are derogatory slang terms for ugly women.
They love comic books – especially X-Men
When comic books as obscure as Silverblade, a 12-issue series from DC published in 1987, make the grade, it's clear that someone in GCHQ is a big fan of the medium. But nowhere is that more clear than with the presence of an entire squadron of X-Men in the list of code names. The mutants run the gamut from relatively mainstream heroes such as "Nightcrawler", "Shadowcat" and "Deadpool", played by Alan Cumming, Ellen Paige and Ryan Reynolds respectively, to more obscure characters such as "Havok", "Longshot", and "Mirage".
They may also be in to dance, mid-90s video games and Fireman Sam
While some agents clearly have preferences for what they name programmes after (there's a delightful dancing theme running throughout, with names such as "Top Hat", "Hacienda" and "Glitterball" suggesting someone happy on a dancefloor), others clearly go for whatever geeky in-joke comes to mind. Among the strangest are "Concrete Donkey", a weapon in the turn-based invertebrate massacre game Worms, and "Arson Sam", a YouTube series involving videos of children's TV character Fireman Sam played backwards, turning him into Pontypandy's biggest firestarter.
And, predictably, they like both Star Wars and Star Trek
The warring behemoths of sci-fi naturally feature heavily. "Photon Torpedo" is a code name taken from the Star Trek weapon (confuse with Star Wars' Proton Torpedo at your peril), while "Pod Race" is a reference to the only good action sequence in the worst Star Wars film to date. Then there is the agent who got lazy and just named one operation "Jedi", presumably because it was a Friday afternoon and he couldn't be bothered to think of something witty.
