Ken McCallum and Chris Wray are cautioning business executives that China is determined to steal their technology for competitive advantage.
In a rare joint statement in London, the heads of the domestic intelligence services of the United States and the United Kingdom have expressed concern over Chinese economic espionage.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) director Chris Wray warned Western companies that Beijing was determined to steal their technology for competitive advantage.
While Ken McCallum, the director of the UK’s MI5, claimed that the Chinese government’s “covert pressure across the globe” amounts to “the most game-changing challenge we face.”
As soon as the claims were made, China dismissed them as “groundless,” calling them an effort to “smear” its political system.
McCallum and Wray gave their first joint talk at London’s Thames House, in front of a crowd that included government representatives and business leaders.
‘China, Urgent and Real’
The Chinese threat “may seem impersonal. However, it’s urgent and real, according to McCallum. “We should discuss it. We must take action.
He said that the MI5’s operations in China had significantly increased.
According to him, there are currently seven times as many investigations underway as there were last year. We intend to expand once again while continuing to make significant efforts to counter Russian and Iranian covert threats.
Few individuals targeted by Chinese intelligence, according to McCallum, were aware that they were being targeted. Instead, Chinese intelligence developed sources slowly and patiently in order to get information.
Currently, hostile behavior is taking place on UK soil, he declared.
“By volume, the majority of what the Chinese Communist Party’s hostility threatens isn’t really my stuff.
The cutting-edge know-how, technology, research, and commercial advantage created and owned by those present in this room and those like you is yours.
This message was reiterated by the FBI director, who described China’s efforts as posing a “complex, lasting, and pervasive danger” to the US, the UK, and other allies.
China is “determined to take your technology, whatever it is that makes your sector tick, and use it to undercut your business and dominate your market,” according to Wray.
The hacking effort of the Chinese government, he continued, was “larger than that of all major countries combined.”
“Horrendous disruptions”
The joint address was met with mixed reviews from analysts; some thought it was long overdue and others said it was just “grand-standing.”
According to Robert Potter, Co-CEO of the Australian-US cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0, it’s critical that the general public fully comprehends the threat that China poses.
“For far too long, those agencies’ security cultures have prevented the general people from understanding the context of what is actually happening.
Since more than just intelligence agencies are being targeted by China, they must share their intelligence with the commercial sector and the general public, he said.
The joint address was met with mixed reviews from analysts; some thought it was long overdue and others said it was just “grand-standing.”
According to Robert Potter, Co-CEO of the Australian-US cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0, it’s critical that the general public fully comprehends the threat that China poses.
“For far too long, those agencies’ security cultures have prevented the general people from understanding the context of what is actually happening.
Since more than just intelligence agencies are being targeted by China, they must share their intelligence with the commercial sector and the general public, he said.
I don’t believe this is a problem that should bother the people on an individual basis, but individuals who are more likely to be the target of something like the CCP regime [should] be a lot more conscious and a lot more concerned.
