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Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced plans for a National Centre for Information Defence to detect, attribute and disrupt hostile state-led disinformation, principally Russian influence operations. Burnham said Russian agencies are conducting an industrial-scale assault on the UK information environment through bots, fake websites, forged articles, impersonation of British organizations, and attempted election interference, alongside wider hybrid activity such as cyberattacks and sabotage.
The Cabinet Office is developing the centre with intelligence agencies, law enforcement, government departments and social-media companies, but its mandate, powers, structure and launch timetable have not been disclosed. Potential measures could draw on sanctions, domain seizures, law-enforcement action, regulation and offensive cyber capabilities; observers urged clear legal authority, resources and accountability. Burnham also announced a planned US-UK AI-defence partnership to protect critical infrastructure, while critics cautioned that the proposal does not yet address domestic misinformation or algorithmic amplification of harmful legal content.
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In its July 2025 report on social media, misinformation, and harmful algorithms, the Science and Technology Committee recommended creating a single body to counter state disinformation threats and warned that Ofcom was ill-equipped for the task.
The National Security Act 2023 created a UK criminal offense specifically targeting foreign interference.
France created Viginum to focus on foreign information operations involving fake accounts, bots, and other coordinated inauthentic behavior. Its remit excludes domestic actors and judging the truth of individual claims.
Burnham said the UK has evidence that Russian actors attempted to interfere in the 2019 UK General Election.
Burnham said the UK is developing an AI-defence partnership with the United States to protect national infrastructure and may introduce legislation against AI-enabled threats if needed.
Burnham accused Russian agencies of using bots, fake websites, falsified articles, and forged branding to target the UK, including impersonation of 28 British organisations. He also said Russian actors amplified far-right narratives and described the activity as part of a broader hybrid campaign.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced plans to create the National Centre for Information Defence during his UN General Assembly address. The proposed centre is intended to detect, attribute, and disrupt hostile state-led disinformation campaigns, with the Cabinet Office and UK security bodies beginning design work.
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The United Kingdom has imposed new sanctions on several Russian and Chinese organizations and individuals accused of conducting cyberattacks and influence operations aimed at undermining Western democracies. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced these measures, which target Russian influence networks such as the Telegram channel Ryber, Pravfond, and the Centre for Geopolitical Expertise, as well as Chinese technology companies i-Soon and Integrity Technology Group. The sanctions are part of a broader effort to counter hybrid security threats, including disinformation campaigns and cyber operations, with the UK calling for enhanced multilateral cooperation across Europe to address these evolving challenges. In a related address, Cooper emphasized the growing sophistication and democratization of tools used by hostile foreign states, particularly Russia, to conduct information warfare and hybrid attacks targeting critical infrastructure and democratic institutions. She highlighted recent examples of Russian disinformation campaigns, such as the Doppelgänger operation and attempts to undermine political stability in Moldova and Africa through fake news and deepfakes. The UK government is urging European partners to strengthen collaboration and resilience against these persistent and complex threats to national and regional security.
Jun 29, 2026
The UK government published proposals to overhaul policing by creating a **National Police Service**—positioned as an “FBI-like” body—to centralize investigations into cybercrime, fraud, and other internet-enabled offenses that increasingly cross local and national boundaries. The plan would shift responsibility for serious, non-local crimes away from the current model of dozens of territorial forces in England and Wales and would reportedly **merge the National Crime Agency (NCA)** into the new structure; ministers argue the existing system is no longer fit for purpose as crime becomes more digitally enabled. Officials cited the scale of the problem—claiming roughly **90% of crime now has a digital element** and that **fraud accounts for about 44% of recorded offenses**—and framed the proposal as the most significant reform of British policing in nearly 200 years, with a multi-year transition rather than an immediate reorganization. Separately, UK national security leaders warned in Parliament that resilience alone may be insufficient against **state-backed cyber and hybrid threats** (including critical infrastructure sabotage and disinformation), arguing the UK needs credible **offensive deterrence** to impose costs on hostile actors, alongside defensive investment and clearer accounting of NATO-aligned security spending commitments.
Jul 12, 2026
Russian state-backed cyber operations have intensified against Western democracies, with the United Kingdom and Moldova reporting significant hostile activities attributed to Kremlin-linked actors. In the UK, the former head of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller, publicly stated that the scale and nature of Russian cyberattacks, intelligence operations, and physical sabotage suggest the country may already be engaged in a form of warfare with Russia. She highlighted the extensive use of cyberattacks, intelligence collection, and physical attacks, referencing recent campaigns attributed to APT28, a group linked to Russia's GRU, which targeted Microsoft login credentials and passwords as part of espionage efforts. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued warnings about these campaigns, noting that Russian hacking groups have focused on governments, technology firms, and logistics suppliers supporting Ukraine. These operations are not isolated, as Russian state-backed cyberattacks have targeted Western organizations for years, often in coordination with ransomware gangs and cybercriminals believed to have ties to Moscow's intelligence services. In Moldova, Deputy Prime Minister Doina Nistor accused Russia of orchestrating a cyberattack on the Central Electoral Commission ahead of parliamentary elections, describing it as part of a broader hybrid campaign to destabilize the country's democracy. The attack exploited a vulnerability that has since been secured, but officials warn that Moldova is being used as a testbed for Russian hybrid warfare tactics, including DDoS attacks via hijacked routers, AI-driven disinformation, and efforts to radicalize youth and orchestrate unrest. Moldovan authorities report that the scale of Russian interference now far exceeds previous years, with increased funding for vote-buying, more sophisticated disinformation campaigns, and greater resources dedicated to destabilizing the electoral process. These hybrid operations are seen as a warning for other Western democracies, with officials cautioning that successful tactics in Moldova could soon be deployed in upcoming elections across Europe and the United States. The overarching goal of these Russian operations is to manipulate public opinion, undermine trust in democratic institutions, and destabilize governments. Both the UK and Moldova have responded by strengthening cybersecurity measures and raising public awareness, but the persistent and evolving nature of Russian hybrid threats continues to pose a significant challenge to national security and democratic integrity across the West.
Jun 29, 2026