NCSC warns British start-ups of threat from Chinese and Russian hackers
The Government has warned British technology start-ups of the hacking threat posed by China and Russia in a new guide published online.
The National Cyber Security Centre, a division of intelligence agency GCHQ, has published a new “Secure Innovation” guide which warns technology companies to keep their networks secure from foreign spies.
“Competition to succeed in emerging technology can be intense,” the guide warns, before giving start-ups examples of Russian and Chinese spies hacking into businesses to steal valuable technology.
“UK companies working in emerging technologies are likely to be a particularly attractive target to a wider range of threats. This includes those backed by a foreign state,” the NCSC wrote in the guide, which was published midway through the organisation’s CYBERUK virtual conference.
British start-ups should be wary of international collaboration, the NCSC warned, because it “heightens security risks” and “some foreign states may seek technological advancement for reasons that are at odds with UK interests and values.”
Fledgling businesses eager for investment should also be wary of taking money from certain countries, the NCSC wrote. Future investors are likely to check if “other investors share similar values and objectives to their own,” the guide warned.
Instead of accepting potentially risky foreign investment, the NCSC directed businesses to “sources of funding available from the UK public sector” such as the British Business Bank.
Start-ups should also consider placing physical barriers around their most valuable products, the NCSC suggested, and locking key items away to prevent espionage.
Businesses should watch out for warning signs that their employees are becoming “disgruntled” and could seek to steal information.
Any start-up employees who show “unexplained wealth,” “aggressive behaviour,” or a “change of working pattern” could attempt to damage the organisation by stealing or selling secrets.
US authorities revealed last year that a Chinese hacking group broke into the networks of an unnamed British artificial intelligence business last April as they hunted for promising technological developments.
Two Chinese hackers were accused of carrying out a decade-long spree of industrial espionage, including stealing software source code and designs for weapons and other manufactured items.
The warning to start-ups about espionage comes after Jeremy Fleming, the director of GCHQ, warned in a speech on Tuesday that “we can see significant technology leadership is moving east, it’s causing a conflict of values.”
“Without action, it is increasingly apparent that the key technologies on which we rely won’t be shaped and controlled by the west,” he continued. “There is no doubt that we are facing a moment of reckoning.”
“We need to protect and build our strategic technology advantage,” he said, “using science and technology to defend against threats.”
British start-ups working on breakthrough technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing have in the past been offered lucrative investment terms from investors linked to China, industry insiders have said.
These approaches have alarmed the security services and helped to prompt the creation of the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), a fund that is jointly run by the security services and the armed forces which invests in breakthrough technologies that could have military uses.
The Telegraph revealed in March that NSSIF has invested more than £100m into seven venture capital funds to encourage them to back British companies, as well as making a series of its own direct investments.
