National Security · Espionage

MI5 Chief Highlights AI Bioweapons and Russian Sabotage as Key Threats

Britain's domestic spy agency, MI5, has identified artificial intelligence-enabled bioweapons and Russian state-sponsored sabotage as significant national security concerns, according to Director General Ken McCallum.

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ByOlivier Knox

Oct. 14, 2026, at 4:00 p.m.

TOPSHOT - A fireball lights the sky following a missile strike on Tel Aviv on February 28, 2026. The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, with Israel's public broadcaster reporting that the Iranian supreme leader had been targeted, as the Islamic republic retaliated with barrages of missiles at Gulf states and Israel. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP via Getty Images)

JOHN WESSELS | AFP via Getty Images

A fireball lights the sky following a missile strike on Tel Aviv on February 28, 2026.

Iran is stepping up attacks on targets in the UK. Artificial intelligence could help terrorists develop biological weapons. Russia remains “aggressor No. 1,” enlisting criminals and “naive volunteers.” These are major concerns for the head of Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5.

That official, Director General Ken McCallum, delivered his annual speech on threats Tuesday. It’s sobering reading, even if some of what he said – notably about Moscow’s mischief-making – came as no surprise.

While he did not mention America, McCallum’s remarks resonate here because they touch on threats that are very real in the U.S., such as the role AI could play in future attacks, the Iran war and Russia’s “hybrid war” against NATO.

Here are four takeaways from the speech.

Iran Going After ‘Harder Targets’

McCallum said one “major shift” over the past year “has been Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets, like military sites.”

He did not elaborate. But British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said Tehran was “almost certainly” behind an apparent plot to attack a UK military base, RAF Fairford, that is used by the U.S.

McCallum said that more than 50 people have been arrested over the past year in “Iran-linked operations” and blamed Tehran for a series of “sickening” antisemitic attacks.

“The spring saw a wave of arson and sabotage incidents targeting Jewish communities in the UK and other European nations,” he said.

Terrorists Could Use AI to Get Bioweapons

After declaring, “I’m not easy to alarm, and neither is my organization,” McCallum went on to, well, sound the alarm about artificial intelligence, saying it is “supercharging” cyberwarfare and can be used to generate propaganda and radicalizing materials tailored to an individual.

“Not yet realized, but the misuse case to which I’d attach greatest weight is AI’s potential to change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons,” he said.

Earlier this year, AI company Anthropic said it discovered five attempts at using its Claude software to develop potentially harmful pathogens. Some scientists have called the firm’s headline-grabbing report an overreaction.

Russia Is ‘Aggressor No. 1’

Russia is attempting to “unsettle other European homelands” as President Vladimir Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine has bogged down, McCallum said. But he described Moscow as broadly diminished from its Cold War apex.

“The Kremlin’s global toolkit is weak,” he said. “So we see them scrambling to pay criminals to do their bidding. Or exploiting naive volunteers.”

Still, McCallum hinted at the possibility of a miscalculation that could escalate to a Russia-NATO conflict, saying Moscow was “being careful” to stop short of actions that might trigger the alliance’s mutual defense clause.

“Russia is using tactics that stop short – though sometimes not much short – of conventional conflict,” he said.

A Rise in Right-Wing, Anti-Immigrant Extremism

In MI5’s caseload over the past year, “the most marked trend has been an increase in cases” where radicalized right-wing anti-immigration or anti-Muslim sentiments boil over into attempted terrorist attacks, McCallum said.

“Extreme right-wing terrorism also continues to skew young, driven by the internet,” he said, pointing to cases involving youths ages 13 and 16.

“Both plots were averted by rapid professional work,” he said.

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