Page 50 - SyI Quarterly 7

Institute Community
Security Community

Professionals are advised to

‘Think Before You Link’

This April saw the coordinated launch of the ‘Think Before
You Link’ (TBYL) security behavioural change campaign
across all UK Government departments and their associated
agencies, offices and organisations. The campaign aims to
raise awareness amongst those who have access to classified,
sensitive or otherwise privileged information, although its
advice is applicable to all.
Hostile states have been using professional networking sites,
such as LinkedIn as well as others, to target individuals who
have access to classified, sensitive or otherwise privileged
information on an industrial scale across the world.
Within the UK, MI5 has assessed that in excess of 10,000 UK
nationals across virtually all government departments and
key industries have been approached by malicious profiles on
behalf of hostile states on a premier professional networking
site over the last 5 years. This is likely to be a conservative
estimate. A considerable volume of these individuals has,
at first, unwittingly gone on to engage with these malicious
profiles. These cases have been carefully managed and
appropriate mitigations to protect UK nationals and UK
national security have been put in place.
The scale of the problem means that numerous individuals across government and wider industry
are falling foul to these malicious approaches. That’s why we are asking all of members to ‘Think
Before You Link’ alongside our partners from across the UK Government.

Speaking on the ‘Think Before You Link’ Campaign, Dominic Fortescue, Government Chief Security
Officer and Director General Governmental Security Function said:

“I’m pleased to support the launch of a new phase of the ‘Think Before You Link’ campaign this week.

Since the start of the pandemic, many of us have been working remotely and having to spend more
time at home on our personal devices. As a result, staff have become more vulnerable to malicious
approaches from hostile security services and criminal organisations on social media. We’ve been
working closely with the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) to ensure that
those who have access to classified, sensitive or otherwise privileged information, are aware of the
issue and can manage their behaviours online.
By running the Think Before You Link campaign across the whole of government, we want to alert
civil servants to some of the threats they may face on social media and provide guidance on how to
operate online more safely. The campaign is aimed at over 450,000 colleagues across the UK Civil
Service and its arms-length bodies. ”

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