THE new boss of MI6 will give real life James Bonds a Licence to Code as she warns modern technology means “the front-line is everywhere”.
Blaise Metreweli, the first female boss of the Secret Intelligence Service, is due to say 007 spies “must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources.”
In her first public comments as “C”, as the head of MI6 is known, she will say: “Mastery of technology must infuse everything we do.
“Not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft, and even more importantly, in the mindset of every officer.”
The veteran spook served as Q – the head of MI6’s gadgets section – before becoming its youngest ever chief aged 48 in the autumn.
In a reference to computer code Python she will say spies must be “as fluent in Python as we are in multiple languages”.
She is also expected to throw down a gauntlet to Putin by revealing that MI6 missions are targeting Russia “on Ukraine’s behalf”.
She will say: “Putin should be in no doubt, our support is enduring.
“The pressure we apply on Ukraine‘s behalf will be sustained.”
Her predecessor Richard Moore revealed MI6 was backing Kyiv’s “covert action” missions – spy speak for sabotage.
Moore confirmed MI6 was channelling Winston Churchill’s order to “set Europe ablaze”.
Speaking in Paris last year, he said: “We cherish our heritage of covert action which we keep alive today in helping Ukraine resist the Russian invasion.”
Churchill delivered the legendary order to the Special Operations Executive, whose agents parachuted into Nazi occupied France and blew up bridges, factories and railway lines during World War Two.
Metrweli is expected to signal MI6’s covert campaigns are a response to Moscow’s “export of chaos”.
She will say: “The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement.
“We should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus.”
The main role of MI6 is recruiting and running human agents around the world.
Metreweli, who served in Iraq, is due to warn Britain faces tough choices over technology.
Speaking at MI6’s iconic Vauxhall’s headquarters, she will say: “The defining challenge of the 21st Century is not simply who wields the most powerful technologies, but who guides them with the greatest wisdom.
“Our security, our prosperity and our humanity depend on it.”
She will add: “It is not what we can do that defines us, but what we choose to do.
“That choice – the exercise of human agency – has shaped our world before, and it will shape it again.”
Metreweli joined the intelligence service in 1999 and served undercover across Europe and the Middle East before taking a top level counter-terrorism role at MI5, the UK based Secret Intelligence Service.
