cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11646278

From connected cars to British universities, from Russian sabotage to Iranian cyber operations, European security services are making increasingly explicit warnings public. The alerts come as Europe heads towards an election-heavy 2027, leaving governments to balance security concerns, diplomatic relationships and economic interests.

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European intelligence agencies are increasingly warning about security vulnerabilities in interconnected systems, from connected cars to university research partnerships. These warnings highlight the growing concern over data security, industrial competition, and technological dependence, particularly with China and Russia.

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When a car becomes a security concern. A car can also be a platform for collecting information. That is the message behind a new warning from Dutch intelligence about the risks associated with the increasingly connected systems installed in modern vehicles.

• Microphones and cameras can technically be activated remotely, according to the document published on Wednesday. Infotainment systems can hold identifiers from connected devices, contacts, internet traffic, messages and navigation data. GPS and telematics systems can also be used to reconstruct a vehicle’s location and movements. The advice to users is unusually concrete: avoid confidential conversations inside or near the vehicle, and limit the amount of personal or sensitive information entered into onboard systems.
• The Dutch warning does not identify China or Chinese manufacturers as the source of the threat. It addresses the vulnerabilities of connected vehicles in general. But it comes as the security implications of Chinese-made cars are becoming an increasingly sensitive issue in Europe.

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• Connected cars combine many of the features that have driven those concerns: sensors, cameras, microphones, geolocation, remotely updatable software and vast quantities of data. In the case of Chinese manufacturers, concerns over data collection intersect with the broader question of the relationship between companies and the state — and whether technologies becoming embedded in everyday European life could generate new strategic dependencies.
• It is here — rather than in the Dutch warning itself — that the car intersects with Europe’s broader China debate. Data security, industrial competition and technological dependence are increasingly converging around the same product.

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From universities to semiconductors. Cars are only one part of the picture. On the same day as the Dutch warning, the security of British university research partnerships with Chinese entities came under renewed scrutiny, amid concerns about the potential transfer of sensitive cyber expertise.

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Russia and the space below conventional war. With Russia, the picture is different — and more immediately coercive. On September 24, the Danish Defence Intelligence Service published an assessment concluding that Europe’s security environment had deteriorated further. Moscow, the agency said, had intensified its use of sabotage and destructive cyberattacks and was attacking targets in Europe with drones. Its conclusion was stark: “the hybrid war is escalating”.

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Making those risks public inevitably reduces the room for political ambiguity. It does not compel a government to adopt a particular policy towards China, Russia or Iran. But it makes it harder, after the fact, to argue that the risks had not been identified. In that sense, public intelligence warnings can begin to function as policy signals.

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