Despite the introduction of ever-improving surveillance technologies and snooping gadgets, today's spies were failing to gain the upper hand in "the war on terrorism," the former head of Britain's national security agency, MI5, said on Monday.

"I certainly don't think at this stage we're winning it," Dame Stella Rimington, Britain's one-time anti-espionage chief, said when asked to assess the so-called war on terrorism being advanced by U.S. and British governments.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Western governments have invested heavily in securing borders, fortifying national infrastructure and intelligence gathering.

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