MI5 chief warns of threats to UK from Russia, Iran and AI
MI5 is devoting more resource to countering state threats than during the Cold War, the head of the intelligence service has said, as he labelled Russia “aggressor number one”. Sir Ken McCallum warned MI5 was now facing a situation in which “our terrorism and state threats operational missions are pretty much of equal scale” as […] The post MI5 chief warns of threats to UK from Russia, Iran and…
In an annual speech at MI5’s headquarters in London, the head of the intelligence service, Sir Ken McCallum, warned of growing threats to the United Kingdom from Russia, Iran, and artificial intelligence. Sir Ken labelled Russia "aggressor number one" and stated that MI5 is currently tackling terrorism and state threats at roughly the same level, with threats from foreign adversaries having quadrupled over the past decade.
He also cautioned about the rising dangers posed by Iran and "extreme right-wing terrorism". During his speech, Sir Ken revealed that MI5 had successfully identified and expelled Russian spies from the UK, leading to the Kremlin's reliance on paying proxies for attacks. The intelligence chief added that Russia is waging hybrid warfare while carefully avoiding triggering a joint response from NATO.
Moreover, Sir Ken warned that Russia is trying to unsettle European countries as its military invasion of Ukraine continues to be "minimal and horrifically costly". The MI5 chief pointed out that MI5’s successes in identifying and expelling Russian spies have left the Kremlin with a weak global toolkit, as they are now forced to pay criminals to carry out their bidding.
Lastly, Sir Ken highlighted that Iran is expanding a hybrid campaign in the UK, with 50 arrests made in the last year over Iran-linked activities.
Written by urgent.news from The Chronicle Ghana's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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