The time the secret services (Mi6) of her Britain They are recognized for their early warning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, today at a historic crossroads. Threats have never been so numerous and complex, and human means find it difficult to respond. Spying, already expensive and dangerous, becomes even more difficult in a world where every identity can be digitally detected, the Economist analyzes.
For the new MI6 director in Britain, a Cambridge graduate and a specialist in the Middle East, the first strategic choices will be decisive: to focus on China, whose secret services are now competing with those of London, to monitor the reconstruction of Russian networks in Europe.
A priority war
MI6 remains primarily a human espionage service, with the task of recruiting and managing agents. But limited resources impose difficult decisions. Should the presence in Africa or Latin America be reduced? And, most importantly, how will the efforts between the recruitment of agents and the counterbalance, which is becoming more and more critical to foreign penetrations?
Collaboration with GCHQ (surveillance and cyberspace) is intensifying. Spies need access to the digital data of their goals, while technical analysts are based on MI6 to introduce secret systems. The future of British espionage may go through a stronger integration between Humint and Sigint, many experts estimate.
Espionage in the digital age
The digital revolution changes the methods. Creating credible counterfeit identities against “Big Data” is becoming increasingly expensive. Services must store huge volumes of information, train models of artificial intelligence and build particularly safe infrastructure. Some fear that these investments absorb, such as nuclear weapons in the past, a disproportionate share of the defense budget.
However, human espionage has not lost its value. “MI6’s power is to know how to create networks and recruit agents,” one former official recalls. Even in the age of satellites and artificial intelligence, the art of intelligence services remains inextricably linked to the human factor.