UK spy chief urges public vigilance

London: The British public now needs to be as alert to covert infiltration by hostile countries as it is to terror threats, according to the head of the MI5 intelligence agency.

In a speech later on Wednesday, Ken McCallum will warn that it is wrong to believe that other countries represent only a threat to the UK government, organisations or high-profile individuals.

Over the past five years, “we have seen over 10,000 disguised approaches from foreign spies to regular people in the UK, seeking to manipulate them,” he was to say, according to pre-released excerpts of the speech.