Russia Increasingly Aggressive: MI5 Chief Warns Against Cyberattack

In an interview, MI5 boss Mr Parker warned that Russia is "at work" in the UK.

He said: “It is using its whole range of state organs and powers to push its foreign policy abroad in increasingly aggressive ways – involving propaganda, espionage, subversion and cyber-attacks.

Russia is being "increasingly aggressive" and is willing to use "propaganda, espionage, subversion and cyber-attacks" against countries including the UK, the head of MI5 has said.

In comments made in the first ever newspaper interview given by a serving MI5 boss in the 107 years since the security agency was founded, Andrew Parker said that although the fight against Isil could last a generation, it is vital not to ignore the growing threat from Russia.

Mr Parker's comments came in an interview with the Guardian, which could prompt criticism given his previously criticism of the newspaper for publishing the leak by CIA spy Edward Snowden of thousands of GCHQ files.

"Russia is at work across Europe and in the UK today. It is MI5’s job to get in the way of that.”

Mr Parker said Vladimir Putin's Russia appeared to be defining itself ever more by "opposition to the west", in a policy that could be seen on the ground in Ukraine and Syria, but also increasingly in the threat of cyber attack.

He added: "Russia has been a covert threat for decades. What's different these days is that there are more and more methods available."

Mr Parker also warned about the threat posed by home-grown terrorists. 

He said there were about 3,000 "violent Islamic extremists in the UK, mostly British".

In a speech on Monday, the director general of the Security Service warned that Britain’s police and intelligence agencies had thwarted 12 UK plots in the past three years. 

He said: “Isil is an enduring threat, here to stay, and is at least a generational challenge.”

The official threat level for international terrorism in the UK has stood severe for the past two years, meaning an attack is "highly likely".

Mr Parker said MI5 and the intelligence agencies had “good defences”, but would not be able to stop every attack.

He said: “We will find and stop most attempts to attack us, but not all." 

Mr Parker has previously been critical of the Guardian's decision to publish the leaks by Snowden.