UK has shared intelligence with 37 countries to help them defend against cyber espionage
\n London
\nThe heads of MI5 and FBI warned of the growing long-term threat posed by China to UK and U.S. interests, in their first joint appearance on Wednesday.
\nMI5 Director General Ken McCallum said the service has already \u201cmore than doubled our previously-constrained effort against Chinese activity of concern,\u201d adding it was running seven times as many investigations as in 2018.
\nFBI Director Christopher Wray said that the Chinese government \u201cposes the biggest long-term threat\u201d to economic and national security, for the UK, the U.S. and allies in Europe and elsewhere.
\n\u201cThe Chinese government is trying to shape the world by interfering in our politics (and those of our allies, I should add),\u201d Wray said, saying Beijing had directly interfered in a Congressional election in New York this year, as it did not want a candidate who was a critic and former protester at Tiananmen Square to be elected.
\nWray warned that the Chinese government \u201cposes an even more serious threat to Western businesses than even many sophisticated businesspeople realize,\u201d and is \u201cset on stealing your technology.\u201d
\nThe Chinese governement\u2019s hacking program is \u201cbigger than that of every other major country combined,\u201d according to Wray.
\nOver the past year, the UK has shared intelligence with 37 countries to help them defend against cyber espionage, McCallum said, adding that in May they had disrupted a sophisticated threat targeting critical aerospace companies.
\nSpeaking about Taiwan, which China regards as a province, Wray said that China may try to forcibly take it over and if that were to happen, \u201cit would represent one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen.\u201d
\n\u201cThe widespread Western assumption that growing prosperity within China and increasing connectivity with the West would automatically lead to greater political freedom has, I\u2019m afraid, been shown to be plain wrong,\u201d McCallum said.
\n\u201cThe allegations against China by U.S. and UK intelligence officials are completely groundless and the so-called cases they listed are pure shadow chasing,\u201d a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the UK said, in response to a question about the comments made by McCallum and Wray.
\nThe spokesperson said that China urged both the countries to \u201chave a clear understanding of the trend of the time, abandon the Cold War mentality which has long gone out of date, stop spreading \u201cChina threat\u201d, and stop creating confrontation and conflicts.\u201d
\nSpeaking at MI5 headquarters in Thames House, London, both the security services heads gave numerous examples of issues linked to China, asking an audience which included businessmen and academics to be cautious and encouraging them to partner with the FBI and MI5 so they can have the appropriate intelligence about this threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UK has shared intelligence with 37 countries to help them defend against cyber espionage London The heads of MI5 and FBI warned of the growing long-term threat posed by China to UK and U.S. interests, in their first joint appearance on Wednesday. MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said the service has already \u201cmore than doubled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18,9462,9461,817],"class_list":{"0":"post-270415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-fbi","10":"tag-mi5","11":"tag-threat"},"yoast_head":"\n