British spy boss warns Russia 'boosting its undercover action' on UK - and everyone needs to help

One of Britain’s top spy bosses is warning Russia is boosting its covert action against the UK and everyone has a role to play in combating cyber warfare.

And she will emphasise the growing power of China ’s military and intelligence capability as the UK faces new threats from hostile powers. Anne Keast-Butler, boss of UK listening station GCHQ, says the UK is at a “moment of consequence,” fighting “brazen behaviour from adversaries.” The 56 year-old spymaster will make a keynote speech at Britain’s Second World War spy centre Bletchley Park on Wednesday, where GCHQ was first based.

In GCHQ’s first annual lecture at the legendary first home of the UK’s code-breakers, she will warn that: “Russia is scaling up its daily hybrid activity.” And in order to combat the daily threat from the UK’s enemies, Britons all have a role to play in ensuring we are cyber-secure “from living rooms to boardrooms”.

Chillingly she will also say that the threat from foreign adversaries now makes the need for greater caution on cyber security “ten times more urgent.” The need for the UK to prepare for grey-zone attacks on the internet and in our security systems is becoming more urgent as time passes, she says, as the threat is “ten times more urgent.”

The married mother-of-three, an Oxford University Mathematics graduate from Cambridge, who began her intelligence career within MI5 will warn we are in: “A new era of radical uncertainty, contested geopolitics and rapidly changing technology.”

And worryingly “the risk of miscalculation is as high as I’ve ever seen it. In the face of such aggression and chaos, GCHQ is working tirelessly with intelligence and defence partners to degrade and reduce the Russian threat.”

She will also highlight GCHQ’s work in “disrupting Russia’s efforts to smuggle Western tech, fending off cyber attacks, and countering reckless sabotage and assassination attempts”.

And this means: “As we remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine, Putin is going backwards on the battlefield.” She will address an audience of media, experts, academia, government and national security partners at the inaugural GCHQ Annual Lecture.

And she will tell them Russia is “relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust.” Acknowledging the pace of technological change throughout her 30-year career in national security, she will warn here is a “narrowing window for the UK and allies to stay ahead.”

She will tell the audience: “China is now a science and tech superpower – with sophisticated capabilities across their intelligence, cyber and military agencies.” And Artificial Intelligence advancements means “the ground beneath our feet is shifting.”

The director will urge the tech industry and national security community to “anticipate and drive advancements, together, at the speed of the frontier.” Referencing a series of 1939 letters from GCHQ’s first Director, Alastair Denniston, the GCHQ will note how in its more than 100-year history GCHQ has always prided itself on “foresight, practicality ... and partnerships” in order to keep the country and its allies safe, adding, “When humanity is at its worst, we are at our best.”

Bletchley Park, which to this day serves as a symbol of collaboration amidst conflict. Anne Louise Keast-Butler was appointed in May 2023 the seventeenth person to hold the role and succeeded Sir Jeremy Fleming.