The British intelligence is on a mission: The goal is stopping a threat from Russia-China-Iran
The British intelligence service MI5 has been instructed to redirect its counterintelligence efforts, with a greater focus on confronting spies rather than counter-terrorism, as a result of increased recruitment by Russia, China and Iran.
Domestic and international terrorism remains a priority for MI5, but there is a growing focus on countering Russian, Chinese and Iranian espionage by allocating more resources to these tasks.
The sources, who weren’t identified, explained that the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury using nerve agent in 2018, caused Russia to lose a large number of its spies, prompting it to intensify its efforts to recruit new agents to fill the gap.
The source pointed out that British support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia led to an increase in Russian espionage activity on British soil.
As for the Chinese spies, they are remarkably active in academia, working among students and lecturers, as well as in the commercial sectors and even in the arts, according to intelligence sources.
In some cases, people gathering information may not realize they are being exploited for intelligence purposes by China.
Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, said Chinese industrial espionage is happening on a large scale, estimating that around 10,000 British companies are at risk of espionage, especially in sectors where China seeks to excel such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and artificial biology.
As for Iran, Tehran uses gangs to carry out operations and plot assassinations inside the United Kingdom.
Last year, McCallum warned that the likelihood of Iranian-backed attacks in the UK had increased significantly, especially in light of the ongoing escalation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
