The head of MI5 has said that thousands of people in the UK have been approached online by Chinese spies.

Speaking to the BBC during a rare public appearance, Ken McCallum said that over 20,000 people had been targeted.

“We have seen a sustained campaign on a pretty epic scale,” the director general told the news agency.

According to the BBC report, while the UK security agency has previously been focussed on ensuring government secrets are not stolen by spies, MI5 is now concerned that innovation is being stolen from start-ups and researchers.

It added that the security service’s unprecedented choice to go public is necessary in order for it to warn British companies who could be targets.

MI5 has seen Chinese agents contact two times as many people in the UK compared to 2021 figures, with websites including LinkedIn used to get companies to divulge sensitive information, said the report.

“If you’re working today at the cutting edge of technology then geopolitics is interested in you, even if you’re not interested in geopolitics,” said McCallum.

The head of MI5 was interviewed during a public appearance of the security chiefs of the Five Eyes alliance – UK, US, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia – in California.

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