Russia is scaling up activity against UK, warns GCHQ boss

Anne Keast-Butler says Russia is causing ‘aggression and chaos’ by targeting infrastructure, democratic processes and supply chains in the UK and Europe

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/article/russia-gchq-anne-keast-butler-europe-b9qss0vvh

https://archive.ph/pKonG


GCHQ is based at “the Doughnut” in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
GCHQ/PA

Russia is “relentlessly” targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust in the UK and Europe, the head of GCHQ is to warn. Anne Keast-Butler, director of the government’s listening post, is expected to detail on Wednesday how Russia is causing “aggression and chaos” by scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe.

She will use a speech to highlight the intelligence agency’s efforts in “disrupting Russia’s efforts to smuggle western tech, fending off cyberattacks and countering reckless sabotage and assassination attempts”, adding: “As we remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine, [President] Putin is going backwards on the battlefield.”



Keast-Butler will address an audience of government and national security partners, security experts, academia and media at the first GCHQ Annual Lecture, held at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, the Second World War code-breaking centre. Keast-Butler, who has led GCHQ for the past three years, will say that the West is at a “moment of consequence” resulting from increasingly brazen behaviour by adversaries.

She will warn that “Russia is scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe” and highlight GCHQ’s role in “seeing around corners” to help the UK prepare. Intelligence agencies are fending off regular Kremlin-sponsored cyberattacks, while proxies suspected of acting for Russia have been behind a wave of arson and other sabotage incidents in the UK and Europe.

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