GCHQ chief to warn of Russian hybrid war on UK infrastructure

The UK faces a moment of consequence as Russia relentlessly targets critical infrastructure, the head of the country's largest spy agency will warn.

GCHQ Director Anne Keast-Butler will set out the threats facing the UK and the measures she believes are needed to confront them in her first public speech on Wednesday.

Russia has been blamed for a string of espionage plots on British soil and, more recently, for waging an undeclared hybrid war against the UK and other NATO countries. The Kremlin has denied the allegations.

Keast-Butler says GCHQ is working to fend off cyberattacks and counter what she calls reckless sabotage and assassination attempts.

She adds that in the face of such aggression and chaos, GCHQ is working with intelligence and defence partners to degrade and reduce the Russian threat.

The Kremlin, which denies responsibility, has been blamed for the 2006 murder of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium slipped into his tea in a London hotel.

It was also blamed for the 2018 attempted assassination of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, where the nerve agent Novichok was smeared on his front door handle.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the UK's ongoing support for Ukraine, Moscow has been accused of waging hybrid war against Western countries.

In her speech, the GCHQ chief is expected to say that as the UK remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine, President Putin is going backwards on the battlefield.

Hundreds of Russian shadow fleet vessels have entered UK waters since the prime minister threatened to intercept them earlier this year, a BBC Verify analysis suggested.

China, she will say, is now a science and technology superpower with sophisticated capabilities across its intelligence, cyber and military agencies.

She says that when it comes to global advances in artificial intelligence and technology, there is a narrowing window for the UK and its allies to stay ahead, describing the ground beneath our feet as shifting.

She sees collaboration with the tech industry, academia and the public as key to staying abreast of advances in cybersecurity.

GCHQ spends much of its time combating organised criminal networks that target vulnerable British firms with phishing attacks and ransomware.

Using the phrase from boardrooms to living rooms, Keast-Butler urges everyone to look to their own cybersecurity.

At home that means taking important action now to switch passwords for passkeys, and for wider society it means hard-wiring security into new technologies, protecting supply chains and making cybersecurity 10 times more urgent, she will say.

The address is due to be delivered from Bletchley Park, the agency's original wartime home.