May 6, 2013: British defense firm QinetiQ recently revealed that over the last three years Chinese hackers had quietly gotten into its networks and apparently stolen just about everything. This was particularly embarrassing as QinetiQ had, for over half a century, supplied specialized gear to British spies, as well as foreign intel agencies. Yes, there is a connection between QinetiQ and the use of the fictional gear specialist “Q” in the James Bond novels. 

Eleven years ago Britain converted most (about 75 percent) of its defense research labs (formerly known as the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency) into the private company QinetiQ. This new firm set up a U.S. branch and has since supplied many bits of high-tech gear to the U.S. military and the CIA and other American law enforcement organizations. Expect many of these products to soon show up on the Chinese market.