Overview
- GCHQ director Anne Keast-Butler told an audience at Bletchley Park that Russia is scaling up daily hybrid activity and is relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust.
- Keast-Butler said cybersecurity must become "10 times more urgent" and urged people and businesses to take concrete steps at home, including switching from passwords to passkeys to reduce account takeover risk.
- She warned there is a narrowing window to stay ahead because rapid advances in artificial intelligence and other technologies are changing how conflicts are fought and giving rivals such as China growing technical reach.
- GCHQ said it is actively disrupting hostile operations, citing efforts to block technology-smuggling, fend off cyber attacks and counter sabotage and assassination plots, and coverage referenced recent incidents such as an RAF flight experiencing electronic jamming and Russian vessels near undersea cables.
- The National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, has been handling roughly four nationally significant state-linked incidents each week, a pace that the agency says raises risks for citizens and firms and increases pressure for faster investment in defence, supply-chain resilience and public cyber training.