The UK government has named Anne Keast-Butler as the first female director of GCHQ, the country’s cyber intelligence agency.
GCHQ—or Government Communications Headquarters—gathers communications from around the world to identify and disrupt threats to Britain.
It has a close relationship with the U.S. National Security Agency as well as with counterparts in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in a consortium called “Five Eyes.”
Keast-Butler, currently deputy director-general of the UK’s domestic security agency MI5, will take up the role in May when the current GCHQ Director Sir Jeremy Fleming steps down, making her the agency’s 17th leader since its inception in the early 20th century after the outbreak of World War One….