Danish Intelligence Identifies Influence Operations As Part Of Hostile Intelligence Activities By Russia, China, And Iran

Inter­na­tion­al media report­ed last week that Denmark’s domes­tic intel­li­gence ser­vice has warned of ris­ing hos­tile intel­li­gence activ­i­ties against Den­mark by Rus­sia, Chi­na, Iran, and oth­ers. Accord­ing to a Reuters report:

Jan­u­ary 13, 2022 Den­mark warned on Thurs­day of a ris­ing espi­onage threat from Rus­sia, Chi­na, Iran and oth­ers, includ­ing in the Arc­tic region where glob­al pow­ers are jostling for resources and sea routes. The Dan­ish Secu­ri­ty and Intel­li­gence Ser­vice said there had been numer­ous exam­ples of attempt­ed spy­ing on Den­mark, whose active glob­al role had helped make it a tempt­ing tar­get. “The threat from for­eign intel­li­gence activ­i­ties against Den­mark, Green­land and the Faroe Islands has increased in recent years,” Anders Hen­rik­sen, head of coun­ter­in­tel­li­gence at the Dan­ish Secu­ri­ty and Intel­li­gence Ser­vice, said in a report. […]

The Dan­ish report also said for­eign intel­li­gence ser­vices — includ­ing from Chi­na, Rus­sia and Iran — were try­ing to make con­tact with stu­dents, researchers and com­pa­nies to har­ness infor­ma­tion on Dan­ish tech­nol­o­gy and research.  Reuters found in Novem­ber that a Chi­nese pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Copen­hagen con­duct­ed genet­ic research with the Chi­nese mil­i­tary with­out dis­clos­ing the connection.

Read the rest here.

The intel­li­gence report cit­ed in the Reuters arti­cle, titled “Assess­ment of the Espi­onage Threat to Den­mark” and pub­lished by the Dan­ish Poli­ti­ets Efter­ret­ningst­jen­este (PET), says the hos­tile intel­li­gence activ­i­ties against Den­mark also include influ­ence oper­a­tions con­duct­ed pri­mar­i­ly by Rus­sia, Chi­na, and Iran:

Jan­u­ary 13, 2022 PET assess­es that the threat from for­eign state intel­li­gence activ­i­ties in Den­mark is spe­cif­ic and per­sis­tent. The activ­i­ties include espi­onage, influ­ence oper­a­tions, harass­ment, attempts to ille­gal­ly pro­cure prod­ucts, tech­nol­o­gy and knowl­edge and, in excep­tion­al cas­es, out­right assas­si­na­tion attempts. In prac­tice, meth­ods and tar­gets vary accord­ing to the state actor behind the activ­i­ties. While the threat pri­mar­i­ly emanates from Rus­sia, Chi­na and Iran, oth­er states also car­ry out intel­li­gence activ­i­ties in Denmark.

Read the full report here.