Our fear of lone wolf attacks, by MI5 and FBI

THE heads of MI5 and the FBI warned yesterday that it is getting harder to join the dots to catch terrorists in time.

In a joint briefing, FBI chief Christopher Wray said there were often ‘fewer dots’ to follow before a lone wolf strikes.

And MI5 director general Ken McCallum said most threats were now ‘transnational’.

Mr Wray said MI5 and the FBI’s relationship had become more important recently to tackle the rise in less sophisticated plots.

He said: ‘You’re talking about largely lone actors, maybe with one or two other people who don’t have to do a lot of plotting... What that means is that with fewer dots, and less time in which to detect those dots, it may well be that Ken’s folks have one dot and we have the other dot and if we’re not super lashed up we’re going to miss the only picture that’s out there and it’s got to happen really fast.’

Mr McCallum said: ‘We partner with the depth that we do because the threats demand it.

‘Whether it is Russian and Chinese covert operatives moving around the world... [or] teenagers exposed to radicalising ideology sat in their bedrooms.’