The kidnappings by foreign spies of the discoveries of brilliant British universities and individual researchers pose no less a threat to the UK than terrorism.
This was stated by the head of the MI-5 counterintelligence service Ken McCallum. The Guardian newspaper claims that the published excerpts from Ken McCallum's statement do not mention specific countries, but they are primarily referring to Russia and China.
The head of MI-5 will present an annual report on threats to the United Kingdom, which states that " less visible threats can have a devastating impact on all residents." The PA agency released some of McCallum's quotes.
"We must eventually ensure the same awareness of citizens about threats from a number of states, as was done earlier in the case of terrorism," he believes.
"We have witnessed how foreign spies under cover made more than 10 thousand attempts to establish relations with ordinary residents of the UK in order to manipulate them," McCallum pointed out.