MI6 has a broad supplier base that enables the work we do. We have established relationships with some suppliers and cleared contractors. In other cases, we have brief engagements with suppliers who can help us with particular problems. In all cases, it’s about working together to deliver a real-world impact.
We are always on the lookout for innovative solutions to our challenges. And while the challenges we face may not always change, the solutions we build will always need to evolve. For example, communicating with agents internationally is as critical now as it was during the Second World War. However, in a more digitally complex and highly monitored world, that task is more complex than ever.
Industry Outreach
We recently released six challenges to industry to encourage non-traditional suppliers to step into the national security space to support some of our core business needs. You can read about those challenges here:
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Architecture
Like many other organisations, we are looking at how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can enhance our capability. This may include analysing information to determine intent from a person of interest, or pattern recognition from financial records.
To use diverse AI and ML technology most efficiently, we must streamline the onboarding and development of new algorithms by building a robust and cross utility AI and ML enterprise architecture.
We are looking to work with industry and academia for:
- Access to existing AI frameworks and pre-trained models to jump-start diverse AI solutions.
- Access to existing Generative AI domain models, pre-post processing and prediction, that we can bind to our own (image, audio, video and conversational AI).
- A synthetic media generator and catalogue to add to our own digital assets, supported by a microservice API framework; an open, standards-based multi-source plug-and-play architecture, so components can be re-used as part of a generative AI workflow and combined as part of a multi-modal media modality pipeline.
Assurance of Classified Information Sharing
We regularly work with partner organisations, sharing classified information in real time as part of a collaborative approach.
We require assurance that classified information is handled correctly; currently this is often a bespoke solution. We are looking to work with industry and academia to develop automated information-sharing assurance tools, or a tool that can be used widely in a variety of scenarios.
Considerations include an end-to-end service that tracks where information has been sent and what it has been used for, and that notifies us if it has been tampered with. The tool needs to have little dedicated infrastructure and provide a service that doesn’t require bespoke reprogramming for different situations.
Communications with Minimal Infrastructure
Our work often requires intelligence officers to be on the move over large distances. Officer safety is paramount, and officers must be contactable at all times. This requires a communication device that can work in locations where cellular services are patchy, especially when officers are working in disaster areas and war zones.
We are looking to work with industry and academia to deliver innovative solutions. The challenge is to design and develop a communication system that can operate anywhere in the world, deliver everything a modern mobile phone could do, with limited reliance on local infrastructure. It must be easy to use in a high-stress situation and it is vital that any messaging or signals are discreet.
Inconsistent Access to Data
Just like businesses building customer insights, we use data to build reports that inform decision-making to ensure the security and prosperity of the UK, its citizens and allies.
SIS ingests a wide variety of legally obtained information and data to build its reports. This data is large and varied. It includes everything from audio-visual information, financial records, travel records and much more. We have multiple analytics tools available to our skilled teams of data analysts and scientists to pick out insights from the data. However, the outputs from these tools need to be brought together in order to make sense.
We are looking for a solution that brings together our disparate information and combines our tools into one data analytics solution. This could be a wraparound software tool integrated with our current systems, allowing smoother and easier access for analysts. Or it could include automating the collation of information and the identification of insights, supervised by a human in the loop.
Advanced Data Querying
We need to be able to access, query and federate data across a disparate number of databases. These databases often sit in different network domains, are implemented in different technologies, have different query syntax and different security and access models.
We are looking for modern and/or novel query federation solutions to use small seed queries (single strings) across these environments. These could be both computational and user-initiated queries to retrieve information that matches the seed query and store inline.
Single, Automated View of Data
We continuously receive new data and information that is in different formats and stored across different systems. To develop situational awareness and understanding, our analysts process and combine these different data sets and information.
We are looking for a novel solution that automates this process, updating our understanding as new data arrives and identifying new information or insights of note. The aim is to reduce the manual overhead of sorting, collating and switching between systems, so our analysts can spend more time analysing and conducting assessments.
