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Britain’s MI5 spy chief warns of Iranian threats, AI-fuelled cyber risks: 'UK entering new era of national security’
Ken McCallum also raised concerns over advancing technology and said that the UK was entering a “new era of national security”.
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Britain’s MI5 spy chief on Tuesday warned that Iran was seeking to target military sites in the UK, saying a suspected plot to attack a US-run military air base in September was “not unique”.
He also raised concerns over advancing technology and said that the UK was entering a “new era of national security”.
Ken McCallum, who heads the UK’s domestic security service, said Tehran was looking to widen its operations beyond targeting Iranians opposed to the country’s Islamic authorities, AP reported.
He said alleged Iranian-linked activities in Britain had included arson and sabotage attacks on Jewish sites, which British authorities have attributed to Iranian proxies.
“A major shift this year has been Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets, like military sites,” McCallum said.
Referring to the recent security incident at RAF Fairford in western England, McCallum said the suspected plot was “not unique”, adding that similar incidents had occurred “not just in the UK but around the world”.
His comments come as detectives investigate a suspected terror plot against the US-run base in western England, which has been used to bomb Iran during this year’s war.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham alleged Iran involvement in the security incident, saying it was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
What had happened
Scores of residents living near the base were evacuated on September 27 as armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts descended on the rural area. Police later said they had found gasoline, an accelerant, in the three vans, but no explosives, according to AP.
While fingers were pointed at Iran from the beginning of the probe, it had vehemently denied any involvement in the case
UK faces ‘new era of national security’: McCallum
McCallum also said the UK was entering a “new era of national security”, describing the current moment as a turning point comparable to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
He said his agency’s work countering state threats – chiefly from Russia, Iran and China – has quadrupled in the past decade, and claimed that both Russia and Iran are expanding their hybrid warfare campaigns against the UK, according to AP.
AI ‘supercharging’ cybersecurity battle: McCallum
He also warned that advances in technology were raising security concerns, saying artificial intelligence was “supercharging” the cybersecurity battle between attackers and defenders.
McCallum said terror plotters have used artificial intelligence for reconnaissance and attacks, including AI-enabled drones. Even more concerning, he said, is “AI’s potential to change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons.”
He said terror groups “would dearly love” to have chemical, biological or radiological weapons, but these are hard to obtain, according to AP.
“One risk is that AI could enable dangerous knowledge to get into the hands of people we would all rather not have,” he said. “A second and different risk … is the possibility that AI could generate novel pathogens not previously seen.”
McCallum said MI5 has set up a new AI Threat Assessment Center to try to keep ahead of the risks.
“Human history has given us no experience of facing an actor which is smarter than we are. It is capable of outthinking us. This is genuinely novel, and deserves the serious attention it is getting, including in MI5,” he said.
