Company meetings with smartphones and tablets on the table must become a thing of the past because foreign countries, such as Russia and China, may be listening in, the chief of the Dutch military intelligence service RIVD has said in an interview with the Telegraaf.

‘These devices are great because you have all the information you need to hand. But the risk of hacks is simply too great,’ major-general Jan Swillens, who has been heading the service since July last year, told the paper.

Large companies are still not safety-conscious enough when it comes to threats from cyberspace, he said, and boardrooms should ban phones from now on.

‘In the twilight zone between war and peace, the Netherlands is coming under fire on a daily basis. Knowledge is being stolen and the infrastructure attacked. Attempts are being made to influence our society by spreading disinformation,’ Swillens warned.

Two years ago the MIVD revealed it had prevented a hack of the of the chemical weapons watchdog OPWC in The Hague by the Russian secret service.

Four agents from the GRU military intelligence service were ejected from the Netherlands immediately after the attempted breach was intercepted on April 13 2018.