Russia directing hackers to attack UK and west, says director of GCHQ

The GCHQ director, Anne Keast-Butler, called the threat from ransomware ‘the most acute and pervasive cyber threat’. Photograph: GCHQ/PA

Russia is increasingly seeking to encourage and direct hackers to attack British and other western targets, the director of GCHQ has said in her first keynote speech as head of the British intelligence agency.

Anne Keast-Butler said her agency was “increasingly concerned about growing links” between the Russian intelligence services and proxy hacker groups who have long taken advantage of a permissive environment within the country.