British Intelligence Moves To Protect Research Universities From Espionage (therecord.media) 8
The head of Britain's domestic intelligence agency warned the country's leading research universities on Thursday that foreign states are targeting their institutions and imperilling national security. The Record: "We know that our universities are being actively targeted by hostile actors and need to guard against the threat posed to frontier research in the most sensitive sectors," said the deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, who also attended the briefing. The threat requires "further measures," said the deputy PM, who announced that the government was launching a consultation with the sector so it could "do more to support our universities and put the right security in place to protect their cutting-edge research."
The briefing was delivered by Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, alongside Dowden and the National Cyber Security Centre's interim chief executive, Felicity Oswald. It was made to the vice-chancellors of the Russell Group, a collective of the country's 24 leading universities. Among the range of measures being considered is having MI5, the domestic security agency, carry out security vetting on key researchers involved in a "small proportion of academic work, with a particular focus on research with potential dual uses in civilian and military life."
The briefing was delivered by Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, alongside Dowden and the National Cyber Security Centre's interim chief executive, Felicity Oswald. It was made to the vice-chancellors of the Russell Group, a collective of the country's 24 leading universities. Among the range of measures being considered is having MI5, the domestic security agency, carry out security vetting on key researchers involved in a "small proportion of academic work, with a particular focus on research with potential dual uses in civilian and military life."
Let me guess how they will protect them... (Score:2)
Re:Let me guess who's top of the list...? (Score:2)
That's the point of universities? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, the summary was a bit obscure. Was the espionage just spreading information or was it sabotaging it? Either or both are possible.
Re: (Score:3)
They exist to share and spread knowledge. They're set up specifically to foster collaboration. You want to do some research that needs to remain secret? Set up special research institutions with heightened security. Don't get universities involved.
The days of Bell Labs type outfits are over. At least in the US, the defense and industrial sectors cooperate with Universities to do research.
It's not perfect, but it works okay on this side of the pond.
Re: That's the point of universities? (Score:1)
Even basic research is threatened by espionage from India, Iran and China. It is not about whether you do the research, whoever publishes first gets the credit and the future grant money so they not only steal the research product, they often hamstring further local research, leading to loss of revenue, status and career progression of the researchers targeted.
They donâ(TM)t just steal the data, they hire students to go to these Universities, work their way into a lab, then steal the research product a
University (Score:1)