gotchanewsdaily.com 
Secretive private intelligence and security companies have become big business for the U.K. in recent years, with some hiring former members of the British security services as part of their offer of insight and analysis for their well-paying clients.
The guidance references assessments by spy agencies MI5 and MI6 that the threat from overseas “predominantly comes from Russia, Iran and China.”
It highlights orders that foreign states may ask British security firms to carry out, including gathering information on dissidents, acquiring protected or sensitive information including in academia, and gaining control of supply chains through investment.
It suggests companies should “strongly consider” turning down work if a potential client works for a foreign state’s public sector, fails to provide sufficient information about their identity, or asks them to gather sensitive information.
All reasonable precautions
Writing for City Security magazine, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, said security pros “have become attractive proxies for those who wish to harm the U.K.”
“Private investigators, private intelligence operatives, and close protection officers have specialist skills, access to information, and proximity to individuals of interest that hostile actors wish to exploit,” he said.
