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MI5 tackling more state threats than during Cold War, warns intelligence chief
Overview
The head of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, has warned that the UK is facing a higher volume of state threats than during the Cold War, driven by foreign adversaries such as Russia and Iran, alongside emerging dangers from artificial intelligence and extreme right-wing terrorism.
Key points
- MI5 is dedicating more resources to countering state threats than during the Cold War, with foreign adversary threats having quadrupled over the past decade.
- Russia remains 'aggressor number one,' waging hybrid warfare and increasingly relying on paid criminals and proxies following the expulsion of numerous spies.
- Iran has expanded its hybrid campaign in the UK, resulting in 50 arrests over the past year, targeting Jewish communities and military sites.
- MI5 has launched an AI Threat Assessment Centre to tackle extremists and state actors exploiting artificial intelligence, including drones and potential bioweapons.
- The counter-terrorism workload and state threats workload are now of equal scale, with significant concern around extreme right-wing terrorism increasingly skewing younger.