Vladimir Putin’s Russia is preparing “physical attacks” against the West, the head of GCHQ has warned, as British and American intelligence officials laid bare the dual threat posed by Moscow and Beijing.
Anne Keast-Butler, who was appointed to lead Britain’s signals intelligence operations last May, used her first major speech to highlight the immediate threat posed by the Kremlin and the “epoch-defining” risk posed by China to the UK and its allies.
The GCHQ director told a gathering of cyber security experts in Birmingham that her agency believed Moscow was looking to go further than attacks simply in cyberspace.
The signals agency is “increasingly concerned about growing links between the Russian intelligence services and proxy groups to conduct cyber-attacks – as well as suspected physical surveillance and sabotage operations”.
Last week, a British man was charged with an arson attack in London and accused by prosecutors of working for Wagner Group, the Russian paramilitary organisation.
Speaking at the CyberUK conference, Ms Keast-Butler said “Putin has not given up on his maximalist goal of subjugating the population of Ukraine”.
She added that UK support for Kyiv remained “steadfast”, with British spies continuing to bolster the country’s cyber defences. »
