The UK government is establishing a new National Centre for Information Defence to tackle disinformation and AI-enabled information attacks from hostile states, including Russia.

The Centre will bring together intelligence agencies, law enforcement and social media companies, with a remit to detect attribute and disrupt foreign information attacks, while helping communities build resilience to disinformation.

Announcing the Centre during his speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, Andy Burnham singled out Russia, citing the use of bots, fake websites, falsified newspaper articles and forged branding from British organisations as examples of tactics used to spread disinformation. He also warned that AI will significantly increase the scale of the threat.

Andrew Bud, Founder and CEO of iProov, commented: “The new National Centre for Information Defence will have an important role to play, but its success will depend on how quickly it can move from identifying threats to actually disrupting them.

“Deepfakes are becoming too sophisticated and too scalable for the government to rely on individuals or platforms simply spotting fake content after the fact. The Centre should be looking at the infrastructure behind these attacks, including how we verify that the people, accounts and communications we interact with online are genuine.

“There is also a clear opportunity to connect this work with the UK’s emerging cyber resilience framework. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill recognises the need to protect the authenticity and integrity of data as part of securing essential services and this same principle needs to extend to the authenticity of the people and digital interactions those services rely on.

“That means bringing identity verification and deepfake detection into the centre of the UK’s defensive strategy, alongside intelligence sharing and public education. If AI is industrialising deception, our response needs to be able to tell genuine from synthetic.”

Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance, commented: “The Prime Minister’s recognition that inequality can leave people more vulnerable to foreign influence is an important one, but we need to be careful not to frame this simply as a problem of individual susceptibility. If people lack reliable connectivity, the right devices, the skills to navigate online information safely, or the confidence to know what they can trust, they are being asked to participate in an increasingly complex digital world without the tools to do so safely.

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“As the Government develops new agencies and legislation to strengthen the UK’s resilience, digital inclusion needs to be built into that infrastructure from the outset. That means investing not only in connectivity and devices, but in digital skills, media literacy and trusted support, alongside clear governance to ensure these protections reach the people most at risk of being left behind.

“A resilient digital society cannot just be one that protects its institutions from disinformation; it must also equip every citizen to participate safely within it. If we build new systems without addressing the digital inequalities that already exist, we risk creating resilience for some while leaving others exposed.”

The announcement comes as the UK seeks to strengthen its wider resilience to cyber-attacks and information warfare, with the government also highlighting the importance of international cooperation and sharing its experience with other countries facing similar threats.