The head of MI5, Ken McCallum, has revealed that over 20,000 people in the UK have been approached covertly online by Chinese spies. Speaking to the BBC, McCallum warned tens of thousands of British businesses about the risk of having their innovation stolen. This comes after the unprecedented public appearance of the security chiefs of the Five Eyes alliance, which comprises the US, UK, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand security agencies. The public statements and closed session with entrepreneurs and investors took place in Stanford University in California because it is located in Silicon Valley, where commercial secrets are being obtained by China.
In the past, MI5 has focused on protecting government secrets from foreign spies. However, the fear is that innovation is now being stolen from small companies, start-ups and researchers who, until now, may not have been concerned about security. McCallum stated that “If you’re working today at the cutting edge of technology then geopolitics is interested in you, even if you’re not interested in geopolitics.” MI5 is attempting to warn tens of thousands of UK companies who may be at risk. However, McCallum explained that doing so requires the security service to go public in a way it has not done before.
During the event, McCallum stated that MI5 had now seen suspected Chinese agents approach over 20,000 people in the UK over professional networking sites like LinkedIn, in order to try to cultivate them to provide sensitive information – double the previously reported figure. MI5 has also seen more than 20 instances of Chinese companies considering or actively trying to gain access to sensitive technology developed by UK companies and universities through investments or other means where the full role of China is hidden, often through complicated company structures. China has consistently denied accusations of espionage and wrongdoing.
The head of MI5 warned that the consequences of research being stolen in cutting-edge fields like Artificial Intelligence are not only for a company’s profitability but also for the future of western countries. McCallum stated that “These technologies are at a historic moment where they are beginning to change our world in some pretty fundamental ways,”.
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