'Terror threat is the highest I've ever seen,' says MI5 chief

In a rare public speech, Andrew Parker said the Security Service thwarted six UK terror attacks in the past year and several overseas.

But he warned: ‘We can never be confident of stopping everything.’

The director-general of MI5 said the threat from jihadis was on a scale he had never seen in his 32-year career.

And he warned there was now a ‘greater ambition’ among terrorists to carry out mass casualty attacks in Britain as the threat showed ‘no sign of abating’.

‘It may not yet have reached the high water mark,’ he said.

In only his third speech since taking up the job in 2013, Mr Parker said terrorists were using a ‘bewildering array of devices and digital platforms’ to plot attacks, admitting MI5 had to carry out computer hacking against terror groups to access their communication networks.

He said internet firms also had an ‘ethical responsibility’ to help tackle terrorism.

Mr Parker said Britain was now facing a three-pronged threat – at home, overseas and online.

He identified ‘sophisticated exploitation’ of modern technology by IS – also known as Isil – to radicalise British teenagers was one major threat, but he warned Al Qaeda’s danger had ‘not gone away’. 

The director-general said appalling acts had been ‘committed by individuals who were born and grew up here in the UK but for their own twisted reasons have decided to identify their own country as their enemy’.

He revealed there were 3,000 suspected jihadis who were a ‘substantial challenge’ to the UK.

‘This year we have seen strong signs of greater ambition for mass casualty attacks by Isil,’ he said.

‘More than 750 people from this country have travelled to Syria to join extremist organisations and join in the fighting. The growth of the threat shows no sign of abating.’ 

But he said technological change presented the UK with an ‘enormous challenge’ as it enabled terrorists to find places on the web that they could communicate without being ‘seen’.

And Mr Parker said US traitor Edward Snowden had given ‘our adversaries an advantage’ with his leaks about intelligence gathering.

He said the MI5’s ability to intercept communications had always been fundamental to its success, but this was becoming harder.

He said: ‘We are seeing plots against the UK directed by terrorists in Syria, enabled through contacts with terrorists in Syria and inspired online by Isil’s sophisticated exploitation of technology.

‘It uses the full range of modern communications tools to spread its message of hate, and to inspire extremists, sometimes as young as in their teens to conduct attacks in whatever way they can. 

(dailymail.co.uk)