MI5 chief warns of rising threats from Russia, Iran and AI

The head of MI5 has warned that the UK faces a growing array of threats from hostile states and new technologies, with Russia remaining “aggressor number one” and Iran stepping up its aggression. Sir Ken McCallum said the security service now devotes as much resource to countering state threats as it does to counter-terrorism, a “huge shift” from the Cold War era. In his annual speech in London, Sir Ken revealed that threats from foreign adversaries have quadrupled in the last decade. He said Russia is waging hybrid warfare against the UK and other European countries, using non-military methods like cyber-attacks, sabotage, and misinformation to destabilise its opponents. Despite Moscow’s denials, Sir Ken said the Kremlin has been forced to rely on criminal proxies after MI5 helped expel nearly 1,000 Russian spies since the invasion of Ukraine.

“With its traditional covert footprint eviscerated by almost 1,000 expulsions since the invasion, the Kremlin’s global toolkit is weak,” Sir Ken said. “So we see them scrambling to pay criminals to do their bidding.” He added: “These are not the actions of a great power with the strategic upper hand.”

Iran’s hybrid campaign escalates

Iran is also expanding its hybrid activities in the UK, with 50 arrests linked to Tehran in the past year. Much of this aggression has targeted Jewish communities, but Sir Ken said there has also been interest in “harder targets, like military sites.” He did not mention the recent incident at RAF Fairford in his speech, but told reporters afterwards that it was “not unique” and that “we have seen Iranian interest beyond RAF Fairford in the UK.”

Seven people were arrested after three suspicious vans were parked near the Gloucestershire airbase. They were later bailed by counter-terrorism police. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham claimed the incident was “almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.” Sir Ken warned that “those who seek to cause mayhem on British streets – whether hired thugs here or their paymasters overseas – will meet an unflinching response.”

AI supercharges cyber threats and extremism

Sir Ken also highlighted the growing danger posed by artificial intelligence, which is “supercharging the cyber-security contest between attackers and defenders.” He said MI5 has already caught terrorists trying to use AI to improve reconnaissance and attack methods, including AI-enabled drones. The biggest concern, though, is the potential for extremist groups to use AI to develop or deploy bioweapons—a threat that has “not yet realised” but has the “potential to change the stakes.”

“Put at its simplest, human history has given us no experience of facing an actor which is smarter than we are,” Sir Ken said. To address this, MI5 has launched an AI Threat Assessment Centre to assess sources and “separate the bluster from the realities.” The UK’s terrorism threat level was raised to severe in April, meaning an attack is highly likely. While Islamist groups continue to pose a threat, the most marked trend has been a rise in extreme right-wing terrorism, often driven by the internet and skewing young. Sir Ken cited the case of a radicalised 13-year-old investigated by MI5, which helped prevent a lethal attack abroad.