The director of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, spoke of the new "fourth generation of espionage" needed to combat the "threats of the hybrid age". Alex Younger, 55, is an intelligence officer who joined MI6 in 1991 after serving in the British Army. He held the position of head of global operations, considered MI6's number two, before being appointed director of the agency in October 2014. Previously he served in the Middle East, Europe and Afghanistan, where he represented MI6 in as the most senior officer in the country after the 2001 military invasion.
Younger said that technological progress has "profoundly changed the operating environment of MI6". Technological change, as well as the degree of interconnectedness, has made the world "dramatically more complicated". He added that the ambiguity that exists today is defined by MI6 as a constant stream of "hybrid threats". It refers to the challenges of nation-states operating "in the gray spaces of the hybrid era". Occult activities made to probe "the institutions and defenses of the West" using methods and methods that do not conform to a traditional war ". The British intelligence chief added that MI6, as "one of the few global intelligence agencies", is ready to respond to hybrid threats, especially by increasing the role of humint.
Humint "will never change radically," Younger said, adding that "it will indeed become even more important in a more complex world." However, it will have to evolve to meet the challenges of the hybrid age. Younger said MI6 pioneered the "fourth generation of espionage", which is the product of the fusion of traditional human skills with "pushed technological innovation". This new generation of espionage, Younger said, is not based on individual work, but on operations that are carried out by dynamic teams within and through state agencies. Furthermore, the ultimate task of these operations is not simply to know the actions of one's opponents, but to “change their behavior”. Furthermore, in order to successfully develop fourth-generation espionage capabilities, MI6 will have to “ensure that technology is on our side, not that of our adversaries,” Younger noted.
Younger gave a concrete example referring to the case of the near-fatal poisoning of Sergei Skripal, the former Russian spy. Thanks to the data collected, combined with modern analyzes, it was possible to discover the culprits of the operation. But the same methods, which make the modern world more transparent, can represent "a serious challenge when used against us," warned the head of MI6.