Mi6 Talk

[Karl]

Thank you for archiving information.  I was curious to read the text
of the presentation, so did the below.

youtube-dlc --skip-download --write-auto-sub --all-subs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDGV7LScLp0
wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/glasslion/b2fcad16bc8a9630dbd7a945ab5ebf5e/raw/931862d2909ac13c0067319923df054dc06be196/vtt2text.py
for vttsub in *.vtt
do
    # convert each language to a transcription
    python vtt2text.py "$vttsub" && rm "$vttsub"
done

Many people are in need of subtitle generation, and it is not widely
available.  I recently spent a very long time hand-transcribing part
of a community presentation, in the hope that others might be able to
better learn important information from people with different accents
than them.  I ended up abandoning the goal, but maybe I can upload the
recording to youtube and use the script above that I wrote for Mi6
with the help of google's websearch.  Please help ensure that others
in the world can transcribe subtitles.

The below english transcription was generated by youtube and are likely wrong.

00:00
so well good morning everybody um our guest today richard moore um
deserves a a long and detailed introduction given his

00:01
deep and extensive experience in government but both he and you might prefer a
crisper and more succinct biographical summary for me the key
points are that he was born in tripoli libya studied at oxford harvard and
stanford he entered the secret intelligence service in the 1980s and
had postings in london and abroad he has also served as deputy national
security adviser as ambassador to turkey and in the fco it was as it was then
styled as director general political he assumed uh the post of c
of mi6 in october 2020 and became the first c to use social media
you can follow him on twitter and i'm sure in the nicest possible way
he will follow you back today the international institute for
strategic studies is delighted and really very much

00:02
honored to welcome him for his first public speech on the theme
human intelligence in the digital age his remarks will be on the record the q
a that i will chair after his remarks are strictly off the
record and not for reporting richard moore see if i'm at six the
floor in that podium is yours good morning i am delighted to be here
for my first public speech as chief of sis or mi6 as it is more popularly known
we've come a long way since the 1980s when i first joined mi6
as john noted and the identity of c at the time was still secret
but it's still unusual for the holder of this office to give public speeches

00:03
this is something that i want to change judiciously for two reasons
first it's an important part of the way that we hold ourselves to account within
a democracy of how we retain public support for what we do
and i hope how we inspire people to want to come and join us
second the changing nature of the threats that we face
requires a greater degree of openness from a modern intelligence agency
there is a paradox in play here one i will try to explain more fully
later in my speech it goes as follows to stay secret we're going to have to
become more open there will always be limits to what i can say
mi6 is an organization that deals in secrets indeed one of my few specified
responsibilities under the 1994 intelligence services act is not to

00:04
disclose our information on an unauthorized basis
but that said i will share with you this morning as much as i can about our work
to protect the security and advance the interests and values of the united
kingdom in my 34 years with mi6 i have seen
extraordinary change in the strategic environment
from the cold war to today's starkly contested era
in which nation states and non-state actors such as terrorists and organized
criminals compete across the domains of the virtual and physical in a world that
times bewildering complexity there are elements of continuity
russia china and iran for instance have long been three of what i might
informally call the big four priorities within the intelligence community
the fourth being the threat from international terrorism but mostly

00:05
we are living through an era of dramatic change in the security landscape
we have to defend ourselves as a country against a growing threat from state
actors within an international system which is not working as it should do to
constrain conflict and aggression we face adversaries who are feeling emboldened
encounter fewer constraints and are able to draw on greater
resources than in the past we face transnational challenges from
climate change to pandemics which create
an entirely new level of need for global cooperation
we must cooperate on these issues even when we compete fiercely elsewhere
furthermore we live in a world transformed by digital connectivity
and stand on the cusp of revolutionary advantages in technology which will
affect the manner in which we live and work in ways we cannot fully foresee

00:06
advances in quantum engineering and engineered biology will change entire
industries the huge volumes of data now available
across the globe combined with ever increasing computer power and advances
in data science will mean the integration of artificial intelligence ai
into almost every aspect of our daily lives others would speak to you about the
benefits associated with these new discoveries and they are myriad
but i am paid to look at the threat side of the ledger
mi6 deals with the world as it is not as we would like it to be
and the digital attack surface that criminals terrorists and hostile states
seek to exploit against us is growing exponentially
according to some assessments we may experience more technological progress
in the next 10 years than in the last century
with a disruptive impact equal to the industrial revolution

00:07
as a society we have yet to fully internalize this stark fact
and its potential impact on global geopolitics
but it is a white hot focus for mi6 my mission as chief is to ensure the
successful transformation and modernization of our organization
extending mi6's secret human relationships to reflect the changing
nature of power and influence in the world investing in the skills of global
intelligence agency needs in the digital age
and meeting the technological challenge head on
by opening up to an unprecedented degree the partners who can help us master the
technologies we need for our operations and to enable us to innovate faster than
our adversaries i will speak to you today about this mission
seen through the lens of what i earlier called the big four set of threats

00:08
china russia iran and international terrorism as well as the overarching
technological challenge but before that a few words on who we are and what we do
mi6 is britain's overseas human intelligence agency
we recruit and run clandestine agents in other countries
we draw on those human relationships to provide government with secret
information and to make things happen that would
otherwise be impossible to achieve we do this for strictly limited purposes
as set out in that 1994 act in the interests of national security
for the economic well-being of the uk or for the prevention and detection of
serious crime and everything we do is bound by uk law
we take this very seriously we've been given powers by the state to operate in
an ethically complex area i ask my officers to do things in their

00:09
professional existence which they would not do in their private lives
a democratic society should only grant such powers to its most ethically
literate citizens who are the very people we aim to recruit as mi6 officers
i am in this job because i believe in the positive power of the human
relationships mi6 builds i have recruited and run agents overseas myself
and seen the risks these courageous men and women of other nations
are willing to run to make common cause with us
and i have seen the difference our work makes what we do as a human intelligence
agency is essential because at the end of the day
even in a digital world critical decisions are made by real people
we need to understand what motivates our
adversaries their intentions their plans and their methods

00:10
we need to be able to reduce the space within which they believe they can act
against us with impunity on or offline and we need to provide the government
with options to lawfully disrupt deter and suppress threats to the uk
wherever they originate as well as help them take advantage of the opportunities
for our country and its citizens this is what we do in mi6
working with our sister agencies gchq and mi5 and with our partners in defense
intelligence and uk special forces we need mi6's global network of secret
human relationships more than we have ever done in an increasingly contested
international landscape the tectonic plates are shifting as china's power
and its willingness to assert it grows a large part of the uk's security and

00:11
prosperity is increasingly tied up with china's actions and policies
there are many areas where our country needs to engage with beijing
including trade and investment cultural links and the transnational challenges
of climate change and biodiversity but the fact remains that china is an
authoritarian state with different values from ours
this is reflected in the threats we see emanating from the chinese state
that coexist with these opportunities for cooperation
the chinese intelligence services are highly capable
and continue to conduct large-scale espionage operations against the uk and
our allies this includes targeting those working in government
industries are on research of particular interest to the chinese state
they also monitor and attempt to exercise undue influence over the

00:12
chinese diaspora chinese intelligence officers seek to
exploit the open nature of our society including through the use of social
media platforms to facilitate their operations we are concerned by the chinese
government's attempt to distort public discourse and political decision-making
across the globe beijing's growing military strength and
the party's desire to resolve the taiwan issue by force if necessary
also pose a serious challenge to global stability and peace
the chinese communist party leadership increasingly favor bold and decisive
action justified on national security grounds
the days of deng xiaoping's hide your strengths bide your time are long over
beijing believes its own propaganda about western frailties
and underestimates washington's resolve the risk of chinese miscalculation

00:13
through overconfidence is real the chinese communist party brook no dissent
beijing has seriously eroded hong kong's one country two systems framework and
removed individual rights and freedoms in the name of national security
its surveillance state has targeted the uyghur population in xinjiang
carrying out widespread human rights abuses including the arbitrary detention
of an estimated one million muslims worryingly these technologies of control
and surveillance are increasingly being exported to other governments by china
expanding the web of authoritarian control around the planet
adapting to a world affected by the rise of china
is the single greatest priority for mi6 we are deepening our understanding of

00:14
china across the uk intelligence community and widening the options available to
the government in managing the systemic challenges that it poses
this is not just about being able to understand china and chinese decision
making we need to be able to operate undetected as a secret intelligence agency
everywhere within the worldwide surveillance web
and we want other countries to be clear-eyed about the debt traps
data exposure and vulnerability to political coercion that arise from
dependency on relationships where there is no recourse to an independent
judiciary or free press we will seek an overlapping set of
partnerships with different countries and regions on these issues making
common cause on common concerns turning to the second of the big four
we continue to face an acute threat from russia

00:15
my father was posted to moscow in the 1960s and my first memories are of russia
i have a deep respect for russia's history and culture and people
the current difficult relationship with russia is not the one the uk wants
but we will do whatever it takes to keep
our country safe and to deter and defend against the full spectrum of threats
moscow poses these include state-sanctioned attacks
such as we have seen in salisbury and the czech republic
interference in democratic processes such as the attempted coup in montenegro
cyber attacks such as the solarwinds cyber intrusion which we and our
partners publicly attributed to the russian foreign intelligence service
or the use of political proxies to undermine stability in the western
balkans this activity is on an upward trend
more often than not these russian state activities are designed to be covert or

00:16
at least deniable however we are also seeing more brazen
activity often linked to the personal enrichment of elites around president
putin the denial of which is increasingly implausible
the deployment of private military companies in africa and syria such as
wagner is one such example the poisoning of alexey navalny is another
we and our allies and partners must stand up to and deter
russian activity which contravenes the rules-based international system
no country in europe or beyond should be seduced into thinking that unbalanced
concessions to russia bring better behavior
as the foreign and defense secretaries have made clear in their visits to
ukraine moscow should be in no doubt of our support for the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of ukraine within its internationally recognized borders

00:17
including crimea ukraine is a separate sovereign country
with a separate sovereign ukrainian people russia
ceasing its destabilizing activity would enable us to focus on common threats
and address russian legitimate interests through dialogue
that dialogue might reassure russia that as the prime minister noted in his
recent mansion house speech we have no desire to be adversarial
towards russia to undermine or encircle it
meanwhile my organization's commitment to understanding russia
and what it is doing has been sustained for a century
and will remain a core part of what we do thirdly
in the context of the state level challenge we remain actively focused on iran
since the islamic revolution in 1979 the iranian leadership has embraced an
explicit doctrine of conflict with both israel and the west

00:18
indeed we deeply regret that a country with an almost unparalleled depth of
history and culture such as iran has been the source of instability
across the region and beyond for over 40 years
hezbollah incubated in lebanon by the iranian revolutionary guard force
was iran's first foreign insurgent force it has since grown to become a state
within a state contributing directly to state weakness and political turmoil in
lebanon iran has repeated the model in iraq where it has exploited a fragile
transition to democracy to seed the country with armed gangs who are
undermining the state from within murdering those who seek to uphold the law
this month one of those iranian-armed and trained gangs attempted to kill the
iraqi prime minister we see attempts to pursue similar policies in syria
yemen and the gulf iran has also built up a substantial

00:19
cyber capability which it is used against its regional rivals as well as
countries in europe and north america and maintains an assassination program
which it uses against regime opponents there are many parallels with the
challenge that russia poses and it is no coincidence that the two countries have
made common cause in syria as the foreign secretary has made clear
we will continue to work to contain the threat posed by iran to the uk directly
and to our allies in the region that includes contesting iran's
development of nuclear technology which has no conceivable civilian use
yesterday negotiations resumed in vienna which could provide a path back to the
joint comprehensive plan of action or nuclear deal between iran and the west
that would be in the interest of iran the region and the world

00:20
we all want a diplomatic outcome the fourth and final of the big four
challenges i refer to is the threat from international terrorism
we retain an intense focus on developing new agent relationships and
technological capabilities needed to degrade existing terrorist groups
prevent their spread and identify unknown threats to do this
mi6 continues to recruit agents in the most dangerous organizations in the world
we benefit from outstanding cooperation with our colleagues in mi5 and gchq
and from our international partners in the last 20 years the uk intelligence
community as a whole has disrupted dozens of overseas attack
plans before they could reach the uk saving potentially thousands of lives
however al qaeda dice and their affiliates and imitators retain an
undiminished appetite for violence and the inflicting of mass casualties

00:21
and the world still presents fertile ground for radicalization
terrorist networks have spread in the middle east to sahel sub-saharan africa
the horn of africa and beyond counter-terrorism work is more difficult
in a more fragmented world with rising internal conflicts some states
regressing in economic development as a result of conflict
and the diffusion of technologies making it easier for terrorists to conceal
their planning the homegrown threat of terrorism
with the attendant difficulty of disrupting lone wolf attacks means that sadly
some attacks are always likely to get through
furthermore there is no doubt about the morale boost the taliban victory in
afghanistan has given to the extremist movement globally
as well as its potential emboldening effect on countries such as russia china

00:22
and iran i mentioned before that mi6 deals with the world as it is
not as we would like it to be nowhere is that sentiment more relevant
than in afghanistan i am immensely proud of the contribution
mi6 officers made to the afghan mission and to preventing al qaeda from carrying
out another attack on the scale of 9 11. but i won't soft soap it
the threat we face will likely grow now we have left afghanistan
al-qaeda and daesh will seek to increase their foothold
and to rebuild their ability to strike western targets
our priority as the prime minister has said is to stop the re-emergence of
large-scale international terrorist operations from a taliban controlled
afghanistan and to protect the uk homeland and our
citizens from any threat that might emanate from there
as an intelligence community we will now do this outside in

00:23
working from the outside to identify and disrupt any threats from a resurgent al
qaeda this is an extremely difficult task and will rely extensively on regional
partnerships as well as coordination with our allies
at the same time we are engaging with the taliban and testing their
willingness to cooperate it is also the job of my service to
provide the independent secret intelligence from our sources to
illuminate this murky scene with our allies we will be ready to
disrupt al-qaeda if the taliban renege on their promises not to allow al-qaeda
to rebuild external operations capability and to tackle the threat from daesh
the context in which we have to confront the challenges i have mentioned is of
course the global digital environment as the counter-terrorism example shows

00:24
there is no longer such a thing as an analog intelligence operation in this
digital world our intelligence targets have online lives
our offices need to operate invisibly to our adversaries
and we need to be able to run our agent and technical operations in an
environment in which made in china surveillance technology is found around
the world all of this requires insights from data the tools to manipulate data
and most important the talent to turn complex data into human insight
the combination of technological prowess and insights from human intelligence
gives the uk a powerful edge the integrated review elevated science
and technology as a component of the highest importance to our national security
and we need to work to shape international norms in collaboration

00:25
with allies and partners our adversaries are pouring money and ambition into
mastering artificial intelligence quantum computing and synthetic biology
because they know that mastering these technologies will give them leverage
an intelligent service needs to be at the vanguard of what is technologically
possible this is not new we've always been at the leading edge of innovation
from the chemistry that enabled us to produce secret writing technologies in
the early days of the service to the wireless and secure speech
technologies we developed during the second world war
and today we are founding members of the national cyber force the uk's unified
cyber command which conducts cyber operations to counter state threats
terrorists and criminals and to support military deployment
what is new is that we are now pursuing partnerships with the tech community to

00:26
help develop world-class technologies to solve our biggest mission problems
we can't match the scale and resources of the global tech industry
so we shouldn't try instead we should seek their help
through the national security strategic investment fund we are opening up our
mission problems to those with talent in organizations that wouldn't normally
work with national security unlike q in the bond movies we cannot do
it all in-house i cannot stress enough what a sea change
this is in mi6's culture ethos and way of working since we have
traditionally relied primarily on our own capabilities to develop the
world-class technologies we need to stay secret and deliver against our mission
this is the paradox i referred to earlier in my speech
we must become more open to stay secret this openness also relates to our

00:27
workforce those we wish to recruit our future workforce must represent the
very best of british talent and be as diverse as the population we serve
this is my personal priority as chief and it will include a huge effort on
recruitment we need to increase the diversity of our
workplace and draw in those who've never thought of working for us before
come and join there is no more important or i believe
more exciting time to work for mi6 to my colleagues who i serve alongside
today i want to take this public opportunity to thank and acknowledge the
men and women of mi6 for their extraordinary achievements and most importantly
the brave people who work with us secretly are agents
i know that if you could see what they do for our country as i do every day

00:28
you would be as proud of them as i am they will remain in the shadows even as
i steal the limelight today to applaud their work
and i should stress it is an unbreakable principle that we never reveal or
confirm the identity of our agents their names will go with us to our graves
in an earlier era winston churchill described the men and women of bletchley
park then part of mi6 who played such a critical role in defeating nazi germany
as the goose that laid the golden eggs but never cackled
we retain the ethos of our predecessors we keep our word and our secrets
so this is how mi6 is adapting to respond to the challenges and
opportunities of our era further expanding our human
relationships and networks investing in our people and our capabilities and

00:29
opening up to new partnerships in the technological arena and with governments
overseas to make common cause on the greatest global challenges of our time
there are no down arrows in any areas of our work the demand for
our intelligence keeps growing and we have to prioritize scarce
resources on new or rising state threats while still meeting the persistent
challenge from terrorists criminals and other malign actors
but we are determined to play our full part in detecting and deterring threats
to our security and interests overseas helping the government to manage the
ambiguity inherent in relationships supporting our country's international
leadership in security and diplomacy long into the future
there is no doubt that we face unprecedented international challenges
but we are a resilient nation we are an influential nation

00:30
with outstanding military intelligence and diplomatic capabilities
and we are a creative innovative nation with immense soft power derived from our
values our history and our culture we should have every confidence that we
can seize the opportunities of the 21st century
and navigate our country successfully through it and our service
mi6 will be at the forefront of that national journey thank you