Head of MI5 reveals the biggest threats facing the UK

RAF Fairford in Glosters where a suspected plot coordinated by Iran is still the subject of a massive counterterrorism investigation. This is part of what officials believe is the changing nature of threats from hostile states with military sites now potential targets. >> The director general of the security service said today that threats both

from Iran and Russia are growing. You might be surprised to know that in 2026, MI5 is devoting more resource to countering state threats than during the Cold War. Over the last decade, our state threats case load has quadrupled. One well-known method used by both countries is to pay criminals to do their dirty work, like

in the case of this attack against a British Iranian journalist in London. But he says technology presents new tools to hostile states and terrorist groups. The >> benefits of AI are real. So are the national security risks. Today AI is already supercharging the cyber security contest between attackers and defenders. It can produce propaganda

and radicalizing material tailored to the individual. >> And he said AI could even be used to develop a biological weapon. It needs sober work now to prepare for the possibility that either uh AI could enable dangerous knowledge for example around bioweapons to reach people who mean us harm in a way that they found

hard to access until now and or there is also potential for AI to be used to generate new pathogens in the first place. >> Delivered deep inside MI5 headquarters. This annual address is often a bleak assessment heard by a small group of journalists inside the room. But this year was different. A message that was