I wonder if John Le Carré’s protagonist spy, George Smiley, could recognise the world of tradecraft today.
Dr Kenneth Lasoen is one of Europe’s foremost intelligence and security scholars. He serves as Associate Professor of Intelligence & Security at the University of Antwerp, Senior Lecturer at the KSI Institute, and is an advisor to governments, institutions and major corporations on national security, counterintelligence, and risk mitigation.
His academic background includes degrees from Ghent, Leuven, Brunel and Cambridge; and the Belgian Royal Military Academy. Kenneth’s research focuses on espionage, insider threats, economic and industrial spying, and how intelligence agencies shape geopolitics and corporate competition. He also briefs senior industry leaders on cybersecurity, supply-chain vulnerabilities, and foreign influence operations.
Espionage has slipped out of the shadows and into everyday life. It’s no longer a distant Cold War memory of trench coats, microfilm, and whispered exchanges in European capitals. In the 2025 world, the spy wars are being fought through our smartphones, coded supply chains, university labs, satellites, corporate R&D hubs, and even the unlocked devices on our desks.
Every industry is a target. Every citizen, a potential data point. Every corporation, hackable banks of information.
Kenneth reveals the uncomfortable truth:
• Allies spy on allies, because they can
• Insider threats (it just takes one) can bankrupt global companies
• Cyber incidents can cripple supply chains instantly
• The Internet of Things is, in reality, the Internet of Hacked Things
• Some of the most devastating breaches begin with the simplest human error (or human intent)
Russia, China, North Korea and Iran might operate aggressively in the intelligence space, but Western governments, corporations and academia are deeply enmeshed in their own networks of surveillance, information-gathering, and counter-espionage.
Kenneth also brings the story closer to home: into research labs, corporate headquarters, scientific centres, and even vineyards. He explains why security failures often start from the inside, why organisations underestimate their risk, and how a single breach, digital or human, can destroy decades of innovation.
There are vulnerabilities across all parts of our society that touch every citizen and business.
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