MI6 chief warns Russia poses 'acute threat' as UK spies told to master tech for a global front line

The new head of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, will use her first major public address to warn of “the acute threat posed by Russia” and call for a dramatic uplift in the technological skills of Britain’s spies as the UK confronts an increasingly tangled global security environment.

Speaking at the SIS headquarters in London, she will argue that “the front line is everywhere” and describe the Kremlin as “aggressive, expansionist and revisionist.”

“Putin should be in no doubt, our support is enduring. The pressure we apply on Ukraine’s behalf will be sustained,” she will say. “The export of chaos is a feature, not a bug, in the Russian approach to international engagement, and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus.”

Metreweli is expected to stress that modern threats now blend sabotage, technological disruption and information warfare, and she will make the case that MI6 must continually adapt.

“Mastery of technology must infuse everything we do,” she will say. “Not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft, and even more importantly, in the mindset of every officer. We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python as we are in multiple languages.”

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Her speech comes as the UK’s military leadership issues its own urgent appeal for a national shift in mindset.

At the Royal United Services Institute, Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Richard Knighton will warn that the UK faces a level of danger “more dangerous than I have known during my career” and that confronting it will require “our whole nation stepping up.”

“Our armed forces always need to be ready to fight and win, that's why readiness is such a priority,” he is expected to say. “But deterrence is also about our resilience to these threats, it's about how we harness all our national power, from universities, to industry, the rail network to the NHS. It's about our defence and resilience being a higher national priority for all of us. An ‘all-in’ mentality.”

He will add: “The situation is more dangerous than I have known during my career and the response requires more than simply strengthening our armed forces. A new era for defence doesn't just mean our military and Government stepping up as we are, it means our whole nation stepping up.”

Sir Richard will warn that Russia’s leadership has made its ambition clear, saying Moscow wants to “challenge, limit, divide and ultimately destroy Nato.”

He will announce £50 million for new defence technical excellence colleges and underline the need to rebuild both military capabilities and the national infrastructure that underpins them.

“I find myself in a position that none of my predecessors during my career have faced, looking at the prospect of the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War. And that is because the price of peace is increasing.”

His warning follows fresh concerns from the Royal Navy. Earlier this month, First Sea Lord General Sir Gwyn Jenkins said Britain must “step up” or risk losing its advantage in the Atlantic, citing a surge in “Russian incursion in our waters” and the presence of specialist vessels such as the Yantar. “It's what's going on under the waves that most concerns me,” he said.

The Government has already pledged to raise defence and security spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.

The UK’s intelligence community is also pointing to the cyber domain as a key battleground.

Charlotte Wilson, Head of Enterprise at cybersecurity firm Check Point, said Metreweli’s speech reflects what frontline security teams have been dealing with for years.

“This is MI6 saying out loud what security teams already know. Cyber conflict isn’t coming. It’s already here and it doesn’t switch off. On average, organisations are now facing around two thousand cyber attacks every week, and that pressure is still rising.”

She added: “Russia isn’t trying to knock the lights out in one go. The aim is constant strain. Small disruptions, leaks at awkward moments, systems pushed just enough to shake confidence. Most of the time the attack itself isn’t impressive. The impact is psychological.”

Wilson warned that online amplification is now part of the threat itself. “Small technical disruptions don’t exist in isolation. When they’re amplified online, they trigger groupthink, harden positions and accelerate division. Anger spreads faster, protests mobilise quicker, and trust erodes in real time. That’s why the ‘front line is everywhere’ line matters.”

She also stressed the role of individual judgement: “The point about coding skills is telling. Modern cyber defence is fast and automated, but it still comes down to people making decisions under pressure. We’re now seeing data exposed through everyday tools, including AI systems, where roughly one in thirty-five prompts carries a real risk of sensitive information leaking. Bad judgement causes more damage than bad code.”

Her final message reflects the theme shared by Metreweli and the CDS: “The hard truth is this: cybersecurity is about resilience, not perfection. You won’t stop every incident. What matters is how quickly you spot it, how clearly you explain it, and how well you hold trust when something goes wrong.”

As Nato’s secretary general warned last week that Europe may be “Russia’s next target” and should prepare for a “scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured,”

Britain’s top security officials appear united on one point. The threats are mounting, the pressure is rising, and the country cannot rely on the armed forces or intelligence services alone.