GCHQ Director: The UK and Allies Must Counter “Existential Threat” to the Digital Environment

The UK must work with other liberal democracies to ensure the internet and emerging digital technologies remain free and open. This is the view of Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ, who gave the 2021 Vincent Briscoe lecture for the Institute for Security Science and Technology at Imperial College London.

Fleming began by noting the increasingly prominent role of technology in all areas of society, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic in the past year. While technological advancements have had enormous benefits, improving interconnectivity and convenience, they have also provided more opportunities for malicious actors to cause harm. “We must acknowledge that our adversaries benefit too. They exploit the tools that were meant to bring society together to instead create discord,” he said. “They misuse that power to fuel division, exploit vulnerable people and peddle extreme views.”

Overall, Fleming believes the UK has already adapted very well to this transformation, which he compared to a seismic environmental event, such as an ice age. He outlined: “We are world leaders in cyber-defense through the NCSC, the National Cyber Force is transforming the UK’s cyber capabilities to disrupt adversaries through cyber-space, we have a strong tech sector and world class universities training the next generation in science and tech.”

Despite all this, the UK must not rest on its laurels and shouldn’t “assume we will be so in the future.”

This is the result of the rise of other nations whose values differ from our own, centered around authoritarianism and control—in particular Russia and China. These nations have become increasingly active in the cyber-space over recent years, as highlighted by the recent SolarWinds attacks, which were believed to be ..

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