MI5 warns British firms to watch out for ‘insider’ Russian attacks

Criminal gangs and proxies working for Putin are on a mission to bring ‘mayhem’ to our streets, says security service.

MI5 has issued unprecedented guidance to British businesses, warning of the threat of Kremlin-backed sabotage attacks, including “insider” jobs.

The alert from the security service follows a suspected plot by Russian spies to send an incendiary device on a Britain-bound cargo plane in July. The device later caught fire at a DHL courier depot in Birmingham.

The guidance warns that Russia is increasingly turning to criminal gangs and other proxies to carry out attacks, raising the risk of “collateral damage” beyond any intended target.

Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, recently said British businesses in the “arms, logistics and transport fields” were at particular risk.

The new guidance was issued earlier this month by the National Protective Security Authority, an arm of MI5 that helps companies, universities and other organisations safeguard themselves from terrorism and espionage.

One section advises: “People are an organisation’s biggest asset. However, in some cases they can also pose an insider risk utilised to either conduct reconnaissance and/or enable acts of sabotage against an organisation.” Another section instructs businesses to mitigate against potential fire hazards. It states: “Using fire as a weapon or an act of sabotage can stop or damage the operation of a site and intimidate workforces.”

The introduction to the guidance takes the unusual step of explicitly identifying Russia as the main culprit. “A key area of threat we’re seeing in the UK and Europe is acts of sabotage allegedly carried out for the Russian state,” it says. “The means of sabotage will be dependent on the sophistication and capability of the actors and any proxies used. This could impact significantly on the levels of collateral damage caused.”

In a speech on national security this month, Mr McCallum warned that the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, was “on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets; we’ve seen arson, sabotage and more”.

THE SUNDAY TIMES