THE head of MI5 was warned that Britain now faces greater and more complex dangers than during the 9/11 terror attacks.
Sir Ken McCallum issued a rare intervention and asked for a “call to arms” across society to ensure we are prepared for where the next threat may appear.
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Writing on the 25th anniversary of the terror attack which changed the world, Sir Ken said the UK now faces the “worst of both worlds” with national security threats posed by both terrorists and state actors.
He wrote in The Independent: “We must of course always learn from the last attack – but must beware of preparing brilliantly to fight yesterday’s enemy, using yesterday’s methods, against yesterday’s target. Our adversaries do not offer us that luxury.
“They adapt because we adapt, and vice versa. The uncomfortable truth is that the next strategic shock may already be taking shape somewhere we are not yet looking.”
The UK’s threat level is currently at severe – the second-highest level – meaning that an attack is highly likely.
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Whilst praising his security service for their role in taking down Al-Qaeda in the years which followed 9/11, Sir Ken warned that “mass-casualty terrorist ambition endures”.
Terrorist threats now sit alongside danger posed by actions taken by hostile states – such as Russia, Iran and China.
That threat is manifesting itself as “sabotage subcontracted to criminals, or covert interference in our democracy, or destructive cyberattacks on power stations”, Sir Ken said.
As well as fighting established Jihadi networks, MI5 now also faces the task of tracking “unknown self-starting would-be attackers”.
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Sir Ken added: “This is my call to arms after 25 years: government, business, academia, and the public must treat national security not as the specialist concern of a handful of agencies, but as a shared national endeavour.
“We cannot wait for the next shock to discover who owns the vulnerability, who has the authority to act, or who was supposed to pick up the phone.
“We owe the victims of 9/11 – and those who will otherwise become the victims of tomorrow’s attack – something more than remembrance. We owe them preparation, resilience and the courage to adapt before the next shock arrives.”