British tech startups should expect to be targeted by foreign spies, the head of MI5 has warned, as the security service ramps up efforts to tackle cyberattacks and the growing national security risks posed by AI.
Sir Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, has urged British businesses to strengthen their cyber defences, warning that hostile states were increasingly targeting the UK’s tech sector and critical infrastructure.
“If you’re a tech start up, expect to be spied on by foreign actors and sort your cybersecurity”, he said in his annual threat update at Thames House.
McCallum warned that Britain’s financial systems and supply chains were increasingly vulnerable to attacks designed to cause maximum disruption.
“Our interconnected financial systems, energy grids, supply chains and manufacturing bases, designed during simpler times for maximum efficiency, are vulnerable to malicious disruption and coercion”, he said.
He pointed to a destructive cyberattack on a UK energy generator, warning that the consequences of such incidents could extend directly to consumers.
“A hack of your banking app could lock you out of your accounts”, he said. “A cyber attack on your local hospital could delay your treatment”.
MI5 launches new AI threat unit
The MI5 chief also revealed that the agency had launched a new AI Threat Assessment Centre (AITAC), bringing together expertise from the AI Security Institute, National Crime Agency and National Cyber Security Centre.
The unit, housed within MI5, will assess emerging threats from AI as intelligence agencies race to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated technology.
“Today AI is already supercharging the cybersecurity contast between attackers and defenders”, McCallum said.
He warned that terrorists were already attempting to exploit AI to improve their reconnaissance and attack methods, while the technology could also generate personalised propaganda and radicalising material.
“We’ve caught terrorists seeking to exploit AI to improve their reconnaissance and attack methodologies, with AI-enabled drones adding a new twist”, he said.
McCallum identified the potential development of biological weapons ass one of his greatest concerns, although he stressed that the threat had not yet materialised”.
“Not yet realised – but the misuse case to which I’d attached greatest weight – is AI’s potential to change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons”, he said.
His intervention comes amid mounting concerns over foreign attempts to obtain sensitive British tech and research.
Last month, MI5 warned that over 100 UK-linked academics had contributed to projects funded by a Chinese institute allegedly connected to Beijing’s intelligence services.
The agency said the China General Technology Research Institute had funded research into AI and cybersecurity designed to strengthen China’s espionage capabilities.
McCallum referenced the warning on Tuesday, saying Chinese intelligence had been using research partnerships to target British expertise.
The MI5 chief also revealed that the agency’s state-threat caseload had quadrupled over the past decade, with more resources now devoted to countering hostile states than during the Cold War.
He warned that Britain had entered a new era of national security in which businesses and individuals could no longer assume they were insulated from geopolitical threats.
“In this new world, we should expect to be tested”, he said.