1/20/2024 0 Comments Data guardian group![]() ![]() BGI will continue to support the UK in improving the health of people.” “During Covid-19 we helped the UK government to fight against the pandemic by providing PCR testing kits to the Department of Health and other parties. “In recognising the UK’s global leadership in genomics and life sciences, BGI Group took the strategic decision to invest in the UK before the pandemic,” the spokesperson said. Last week, Washington added the BGI subsidiaries BGI Research and BGI Tech Solutions (HongKong) Co Ltd, to a trade blacklist due to concerns that Americans’ DNA was vulnerable to being stored and misused.Ī BGI spokesperson said it intended to build on its work on Covid in the UK. MPs on the defence, foreign and health select committees along with Carmichael are calling for tougher controls in a procurement bill going through parliament over fears that the company and others pose a security risk to genetic data in the UK. The comments came as Rishi Sunak was facing cross-party pressure to follow the US and bar BGI Group from government contracts after the firm recommitted to continue its work in the UK. BGI Group has never been, and will never be, involved in ‘hack attacks’ against anyone.” In a statement, the BGI Group said of Freeman’s remarks: “We are incredulous at this statement. It also raises serious questions on why the government has not already warned universities about the risks BGI poses.” “This has exposed alarming vulnerabilities and shows exactly why we need an urgent review into the research partnerships BGI holds with UK universities. If correct, we have to ask why the government would provide public sector contracts to a company that it knows is trying to steal sensitive information. He said: “The suggestion by the minister that BGI has attempted to hack Genomics England is deeply concerning. Responding to the minister’s comments, Alistair Carmichael, the former Liberal Democrat cabinet minister who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on Uyghurs, the persecuted Muslim minority group in China, told the Guardian that he could not understand why a sensitive health contract could have been given to BGI. “However, like most organisations they do receive regular attempts to access their systems, for which there are appropriate defences in place. “There is no evidence of attempted hacking of Genomics England in 2014 from BGI”, the source said. Several hours after the minister’s comments, government sources sought to backtrack on the claims, without further explanation. “We did the same last year on Russia and I’ve passed that through to the security minister, and he and I and our officials are shortly to go through it in detail, in particular looking at some of those actors like BGI, who we know are quite aggressive in terms of international acquisition of intellectual property.” We are very well aware that we have to manage these risks properly.”įreeman added: “On that point I have literally just commissioned and received from UK Research and Innovation a detailed assessment of all of the China research and innovation links across our system. “I was preparing to pay tribute to the work of BGI when my officials pointed out that each week at that point Genomics England was receiving several hack attacks from BGI, and that was a wake-up call for all of us. When I was wheeled out in 2014 to give a speech on the occasion of the visit of President Xi to the Guildhall as President Xi and then PM Cameron were wheeled in, I was speaking to about a thousand Chinese delegates about Genomics England. He told MPs: “BGI is clearly one of those danger points in the ecosystem. The revelation came during a Commons debate in Westminster Hall, where Freeman, who was previously a minister for life sciences, was seeking to reassure concerned MPs that the government was aware of the risks posed by BGI. The Chinese company has also worked alongside and shared data with UK universities and the Wellcome Trust charitable foundation. Despite the “aggressive” approach of the Chinese company towards the intellectual property of others, its subsidiary, BGI Genomics, was handed an £11m Covid testing contract in 2021. ![]()
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