Anne Keast-Butler, director of GCHQ, pictured during CYBERUK 2024 on May 14, 2024, in Birmingham, England.
Matthew Horwood for CYBERUK | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Britain and its allies have a “narrowing window” to keep ahead of security risks posed by China, Russia and other adversaries, the U.K.’s top intelligence agent will warn on Wednesday.
In a rare public speech, Anne Keast-Butler, the director of GCHQ — the U.K.’s intelligence, cyber and security agency — will say Britain is at a “moment of consequence,” with the country facing increasingly brazen behavior from hostile nations.
“China is now a science and tech superpower with sophisticated capabilities across their intelligence, cyber and military agencies,” Keast-Butler is set to say, according to excerpts from the speech released ahead of time by her office.
“The ground beneath our feet is shifting,” as AI continues to develop swiftly, she will say, with new technologies creating a “narrowing window for the U.K. and allies to stay ahead.”
Earlier this month, two men became the first in history to be found guilty of spying on the U.K. for China. Last month, the FBI, along with cyber agencies from nine other countries — including the U.K., Germany, and Japan — collectively warned that China-linked actors were using covert networks and “botnet operations” to carry out malicious cyber activity.
Cybersecurity must now become “ten times more urgent,” according to Keast-Butler, who will call for tightening of digital defenses “from boardrooms to living rooms.”
Russia waging ‘daily’ hybrid warfare
Keast-Butler will also focus on the rising threat from Russia, which she is set to accuse of “scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the U.K. and Europe.”
Moscow is “relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust,” she will say, warning that “the risk of miscalculation is as high as I’ve ever seen it.”
NATO describes hybrid methods of warfare as using non-military tactics like propaganda, deception and sabotage to destabilise adversaries.
“In the face of such aggression and chaos, GCHQ is working tirelessly with intelligence and Defense partners to degrade and reduce the Russian threat,” Keast-Butler will say on Wednesday, adding that “as we remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going backwards on the battlefield.”
Last May, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with the FBI, America’s National Security Agency and international partners, issued an advisory detailing “a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage-oriented campaign targeting technology companies and logistics entities.”
U.S. authorities have separately warned that “pro-Russia hacktivist groups are conducting less sophisticated, lower-impact attacks on critical infrastructure.”
British intelligence is “disrupting Russia’s efforts to smuggle Western tech, fending off cyber-attacks, and countering reckless sabotage and assassination attempts,” according to Keast-Butler’s speech.
“As we remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine, Putin is going backwards on the battlefield,” she will say.
Her speech will mark the 80th anniversary of the UKUSA intelligence agreement, which evolved into the Five Eyes security alliance of the U.K., the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
