You are in:
- Archives » 2007 » December 2007
Chinese Takeaway
George Smiley would not be pleased. The renowned British fictional spymaster would have been appalled at the recent success of spies from China.
In real life, Smiley's organisation, MI6, is responsible for tracing commercial espionage which starts overseas. MI5, Britain's security service, is responsible for the internal follow-up in the UK.
According to informed sources, there have been sustained Chinese spying assaults on Rolls-Royce and Royal Dutch Shell.
It is understood that Chinese-backed computer hackers broke into the internal computer network of a major engineering firm, Rolls-Royce, in an attack which a senior British security source says: "Nearly took them out". Or in plain language, severe harm.
Jonathan Evans, Director-General of MI5, has sent a letter (one can only hope to have been coded) to over 300 chief executives and security chiefs in banks and accounting and legal firms telling them they are under attack from "Chinese trade organisations". His warning is unprecedented according to anonymous sources inside Milbank House, the offical Thames-side location of MI5.
The game of spying almost always runs along parallel streets.
It is not impossible to expect soon a declaration from Beijing that Western "infiltrators" have been looking at the "administration" of China's considerable and economically important coal reserves. And how they operate with imported information technology control.
The pretend headquarters of George Smiley, at Cambridge Circus in London, would probably have sanctioned nothing less.
