MI5 boss warns British students of spying by hostile states

MI5 boss Ken McCallum warns British students they are ‘magnetic targets for espionage and manipulation’ by hostile foreign states

• Students told to be cautious to avoid sharing secrets to China, Russia and Iran 

The boss of MI5 has warned British students they are ‘magnetic targets for espionage and manipulation’ by hostile foreign states.

Ken McCallum urged students to be vigilant to avoid sharing secrets to China, Russia and Iran – as hostile actors are stealing British research with ‘dispiriting regularity’.

‘Hostile actors working for other states make it their business to take your hard work and use it for their gain,’ the MI5 director general said.

He added: ‘We see this happening with dispiriting regularity. Precisely because our great universities are so great and rightly prize openness, they are magnetic targets for espionage and manipulation.’ 

Mr McCallum also compared the global scientific race to the Cold War and called on students studying courses which involve technology such as AI to be cautious. 

MI5 boss Ken McCallum (pictured) urged students to be vigilant to avoid sharing secrets to China, Russia and Iran as hostile actors were stealing British research with ‘dispiriting regularity’

He said that it was not a question of xenophobia but rather to stop the likes of Russia, Iran and China from gaining an advantage amid their hostile acts on Ukraine, their own people and Taiwan respectively, The Times reports.

The MI5 boss, who earlier this year said he was ‘profoundly sorry’ that the security service did not prevent the Manchester Arena attack, pleaded with students as he delivered the annual Bowman Lecture at the University of Glasgow.

Mr McCallum, who graduated from the Scottish university with a degree in mathematics in 1996, gave the talk to students, staff and alumni last month.

He told students in Glasgow: ‘Today’s contest for scientific and technological advantage is not a rerun of what we had in the Cold War but it is every bit as far-reaching.

‘Systemic competition means just that. If your field of research is relevant to advanced materials or quantum computing or AI or biotech, to name but a few, your work will be of interest to people employed by states who do not share our values.’ 

He has previously warned that spies from hostile foreign states are targeting MPs, military officials, think tanks and academics but he had not previously been so adamant that students were also at risk.

Mr McCallum was speaking before parliament’s intelligence watchdog revealed Chinese spies are targeting the UK ‘prolifically and aggressively’.

It raised concerns about Chinese influence in UK universities and the country’s intention to become a ‘permanent and significant player’ in the civil nuclear energy industry.

The MI5 boss pleaded with students as he delivered the annual Bowman Lecture at the University of Glasgow (pictured)

Mr McCallum was speaking before parliament’s intelligence watchdog revealed Chinese spies are targeting the UK ‘prolifically and aggressively’. Pictured: The MI5 HQ in London

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) was also critical of the UK Government’s response, questioning the trade-off between economic interest and security concerns.

The 207-page report, published last month said the UK is of ‘significant interest to China when it comes to espionage and interference’, placing the country ‘just below China’s top priority targets’.

Mr McCallum also gave students tips on how to avoid being manipulated, warning them to avoid fancy conference invites, proposals to collaborate and ‘donations with strings’.

‘These aren’t hypotheticals,’ he said. ‘They’re things MI5 sees in investigations week by week, and they happen in universities just like Glasgow. Whether we like it or not, universities are participants in the global contest I’m describing and need to make conscious choices about the role they’re going to play.’

Universities will be offered expert training from the National Protective Security Authority, which is part of MI5, to help them stay alert.

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