UK stands at “moment of consequence” warns GCHQ director

Keast Butler outlined that the UK stands at a “moment of consequence” where we’re seeing increasingly brazen behaviour from adversaries. GCHQ’s director warned that “Russia is scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe” and proceeded to highlight GCHQ’s vital role in “seeing around corners” to help the UK prepare.

Marking the 80th Anniversary of the UK-USA intelligence agreement, Keast Butler set out the nature of the threat as seen by the organisation and detailed how partnerships – from Artificial Intelligence to intelligence and academia to the public – are the crux of the nation’s resilience and prosperity in the face of such challenges. She continued to urge everyone “from living rooms to boardrooms” to take action and make cyber security “ten times more urgent”.

Addressing an audience including the media, experts, academia, Government and national security partners, Keast Butler warned that we are in a “new era of radical uncertainty, contested geopolitics and rapidly changing technology”.

Further, Keast Butler shared her considered assessment that “the risk of miscalculation is as high as I’ve ever seen it” and emphasised the importance of GCHQ’s work in harnessing tech and data at the ‘edge of the impossible’ to keep the country safe.

Referencing a series of 1939 letters from GCHQ’s first director, Alastair Denniston, Keast Butler observed how, in its more than 100-year history, GCHQ has always prided itself on “foresight, practicality and partnerships” in order to keep the country and its allies safe, adding: “When humanity is facing the worst, we are at our best.”

Bletchley Park serves as a symbol of collaboration amid conflict. Each year, the event will see GCHQ’s director set out the agency’s assessment of the ever-changing threat landscape, as well as demonstrating how the organisation is working to challenge adversaries' use of technology to power the threat.

*Read the as-delivered Annual Lecture in full online