Press. voanews.com.
Britain
and Western nations are facing grave threats to their security and political
systems from the hostile propaganda output and cyber attacks by rival states,
the head of Britain's espionage service MI6 warned Thursday. Alex Younger, in
his first major public speech as "C," the designation given the head
of the Secret Intelligence Service, singled out Russia for its high-tech
subversion.
Speaking
to reporters at MI6's headquarters on the River Thames in central London,
Younger warned that “the risks at stake are profound and represent a
fundamental threat to our sovereignty.” He added, “The connectivity that is at
the heart of globalization can be exploited by states with hostile intent to
further their aims deniably. They do this through means as varied as cyber
attacks, propaganda or subversion of democratic process."
Hearings
planned on hacking
The MI6
chief's warning comes as pressure mounts on U.S. President Barack Obama from
congressional Democrats to disclose more information on Russian hacking
activities during the 2016 U.S. elections. The White House has not responded to
a letter signed last week by every Democrat on the Senate Intelligence
Committee, calling for the declassification of "additional information
concerning the Russian government and the U.S. election."
In a rare
public statement in October, U.S. intelligence chiefs accused the Kremlin of
being behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee's computer system
and of the email's of Hillary Clinton's campaign staff. The computer intrusions
were directed by some of "Russia's senior-most officials" in an
unprecedented effort to influence the elections, the chiefs said.
Democratic
and Republican lawmakers say they plan to hold formal hearings into what they
worry was meddling by Russian in the U.S. presidential race. Fears are mounting
among Western officials that the Russian intelligence services will target the
coming elections in Germany and France.
Complex,
risky work
Britain's
Alex Younger said in his remarks that high-tech subversion "should be a
concern to all those who share democratic values." British spies trying to
defeat the threat face complex and risky work. The British intelligence chief
also hit out at Russia for its military backing of the regime of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, warning that the risks mount of more Syrians being
driven toward extremism.
"In
defining as a terrorist anyone who opposes a brutal government, they alienate
precisely that group that has to be on side if the extremists are to be
defeated," he said. “Meanwhile, in Aleppo, Russia and the Syrian regime
seek to make a desert and call it peace. The human tragedy is heartbreaking,"
he added. The
terrorist threat to Britain and Europe from militant groups such as Islamic
State would continue as long as the Syrian civil war raged, he said.
Russia
waging “hybrid war”
U.S.
intelligence analysts say they have been monitoring hundreds of fake news and
disinformation sites that can be traced to Russia — all part of a broader
effort to interfere with Western democracy and weaken established parties.
In July,
a senior European Commission official said that Russian propaganda had deeply
penetrated all EU member states, helped by local politicians eager to exploit
the confusion sown for their own purposes. Speaking
in Brussels, Jakub Kalenski, a member of the European External Action Service
task force assigned with studying Russian propaganda, said Russian-sourced
disinformation can be seen across Europe, and he argued Russia is waging a
"hybrid war."
According
to Kalenski, the Kremlin is matching different tactics and methods depending on
the countries being targeted. In the Baltic countries, the target is the
Russian-speaking population, via Russian television channels, said Kalenski;
but, in Central European states such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic,
the subversion is more disguised, with hundreds of disinformation websites being
used. In Scandinavia, propaganda was being put out on social media by
state-sponsored internet trolls posting inflammatory comments.
German
company targeted
This
week, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump questioned claims that Russia
interfered in the U.S. elections via cyber warfare. "I don't believe they
interfered," Trump said in an interview with Time magazine; but, he did
acknowledge they could be included in a list of those possibly responsible for
the hacking of Democratic computers.
“It could
be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New
Jersey. I believe that it could have been Russia and it could have been any one
of many other people, sources or even individuals,” Trump said.
Meanwhile,
in Germany, the steel-making and engineering giant ThyssenKrupp disclosed
Thursday that hackers had stolen technical trade secrets earlier this year.
“ThyssenKrupp has become the target of a massive cyber attack,” the corporation
said in a statement.
ThyssenKrupp
executives said the hackers were located in southeast Asia. The company did not
detail what secrets had been stolen. The company's product range includes
industrial machines and shipbuilding and it is highly active in defense
production, including building submarines for Israel.
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