Russia is targeting UK’s infrastructure and democracy, GCHQ head to say

A security officerin front of the Kremlin's Spasskaya tower in Moscow. Keast-Butler says Britain faces a ‘moment of consequence’ with increasingly brazen behaviour from adversaries. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images

Russia is relentlessly targeting Britain’s infrastructure and democracy while there is only a narrowing technological window to stay ahead of a fast-developing China, the head of the spy agency GCHQ will warn in a lecture on Wednesday.

Anne Keast-Butler, giving an inaugural annual lecture, will say that the UK is caught in a “new era of radical uncertainty” and that “the risk of miscalculation” is as high as she has ever seen it as hacker attacks from the two states continue.