Thames House, the headquarters of the British Security Service (MI5) is seen in London, October 22, 2015.
London:
British spies are trying to defend the work of the COVID-19 vaccine against hostile powers seeking to steal or sabotage research data in the race for the global price of a coup that could provide immunity, the chief of the MI5.
The Oxford University vaccine candidate, which has been licensed to AstraZeneca, is in late testing, while a vaccine candidate under development by Imperial College London is at an early stage of ‘clinical tests.
“Obviously, the global price of having a first usable vaccine against this deadly virus is a big price, so we expect many other parties around the world to be very interested in this research,” the director said. General of the Security Service (MI5). Ken McCallum told reporters.
McCallum, in his first major remarks since being named the new MI5 boss in March, when the UK was under national lockdown, said there were a series of threats to vaccine development work .
“I guess there are two things we’re looking for: attempts to either steal the unique intellectual property that has been generated in this research, or potentially manipulate the data,” he said.
“And then the second risk we need to be aware of is the possibility that the research is still of high integrity and solid, but someone is trying to cast doubt on their integrity.”
Britain’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) said in July that Russian state-backed hackers were trying to steal the COVID-19 vaccine and treatment research from academic and pharmaceutical institutions across the country. whole world.
More than 150 potential vaccines are being developed and tested around the world to stop the COVID-19 pandemic, including 42 in human trials, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
A CHAULDRON OF THREATS
McCallum, a career spy who studied mathematics in Glasgow before spending more than two decades at MI5, said the UK faced a cauldron of threats ranging from growing far-right terrorism to economic espionage Chinese.
“The right-wing terrorist threat is not on the same scale as the extremist Islamist threat – but it is increasing,” he said.
Of 27 disrupted late-stage plots in Britain, eight were hatched by right-wing extremists, he said, adding that MI5 was also grappling with increasingly severe state-funded espionage .
“The various threats from Russian, Chinese, Iranian and other actors are increasingly serious and complex.”
China has sought to hack commercially sensitive data and intellectual property as well as meddle in politics, he said. Britain had disrupted the Chinese espionage plot against the European Union. He gave no further details.
McCallum defended MI5 for its role in investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum, saying few things mattered much.
He did, however, give a rare glimpse into what it means to be a spy boss: “Terrorist attacks are always, bar none, disgusting. Every time my phone rings late at night, my stomach wobbles in case it is over. one of those awful. times. “
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
