Taiwan says it detected AI-assisted cyber-attacks on government agencies that came from overseas last month, a new kind of threat that has been reported as “first-of-a-kind breach”. The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MDA) said its cybersecurity monitoring units detected the “abnormal attack” targeting government agencies, which began on 20 July. The National Institute of Cyber Security issued a series of warning alerts while it investigated. The Financial Times quoted Dream – an Israeli AI company that detected the intrusion – as saying the attackers used open-source AI agents to build…
Tag: Cyberwar
Russia is targeting UK’s infrastructure and democracy, GCHQ head to say
Russia is relentlessly targeting Britain’s infrastructure and democracy while there is only a narrowing technological window to stay ahead of a fast-developing China, the head of the spy agency GCHQ will warn in a lecture on Wednesday. Anne Keast-Butler, giving an inaugural annual lecture, will say that the UK is caught in a “new era of radical uncertainty” and that “the risk of miscalculation” is as high as she has ever seen it as hacker attacks from the two states continue. The spy chief will particularly emphasise the wide-ranging threats…
Chinese hackers are using everyday devices to hack UK firms, warns watchdog
British businesses are being urged to step up their vigilance against a China-linked hacking ploy that uses everyday devices for espionage. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and agencies in nine other countries have warned of persistent attempts by Beijing-backed groups to hack equipment such as wifi routers to launch cyber-attacks. Known as “covert networks” or “botnets”, they typically target vulnerable equipment – for instance devices that have not had a software update or are old – as a base for staging activities such as surveillance and data theft.…
UK transport and cyber-security chiefs investigate Chinese-made buses
The UK is to investigate whether hundreds of Chinese-made buses can be controlled remotely by their manufacturer, amid increasing concerns over Beijing’s involvement in British infrastructure. The Department for Transport and the National Cyber Security Centre are examining whether buses made by Yutong could be vulnerable to interference. A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “We are looking into the case and working closely with the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre to understand the technical basis for the actions taken by the Norwegian and Danish authorities. “The department takes…
Government to respond to Commons urgent question on China spy case witness statements – UK politics live
Ex-cyber security chief says Dominic Cummings’ claim about China compromising UK’s biggest secrets ‘categorically untrue’ In a separate China develoment, a former cyber security chief has strongly denied a claim made by Dominic Cummings yesterday about the extent of Chinese infiltration of UK intelligence. In an interview with the Times yesterday, Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, recalled a meeting in No 10 when he and the then PM were told about a Chinese hack that led to extremely secret information being compromised. Cummings said: What I’m saying is that…
In Australia’s post-US future, we must find our own way with China | Hugh White
Thanks to US regional strategic primacy, Australia has been virtually immune from the threat of direct military attack since the defeat of Japan in 1945. Now that is changing. In future it will no longer be militarily impossible for China to attack Australia directly. And not just China: other major regional powers, especially India and eventually perhaps Indonesia, will have the potential to launch significant attacks on Australia. That does not mean we now face a serious threat of Chinese military attack. Today the only circumstance in which Australia could…
Foreign Office summons senior Chinese diplomat over ‘malicious cyber activity’
Ministers summoned a senior Chinese diplomat to the Foreign Office on Tuesday after accusing Beijing-backed hackers of a cyber-attack on the British elections watchdog and a surveillance operation on politicians. The department called in China’s chargé d’affaires and told him the UK would not tolerate “threatening” cyber-attacks. An FCDO spokesperson said the ministry had “set out the government’s unequivocal condemnation of Chinese state-affiliated organisations and individuals undertaking malicious cyber activity against UK democratic institutions and parliamentarians”. “The UK government would not tolerate such threatening activity, and would continue to take…
Tuesday briefing: Why the US and UK are going public with warnings about Chinese hacking
Good morning. You’re probably not an MP or peer on the Inter-parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), so that part of yesterday’s cyber-attack revelations needn’t concern you excessively. If you are among the 40 million UK voters included on a register held by the Electoral Commission, though, I have bad news: the Chinese government has your personal details. Yesterday afternoon, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden laid out sanctions in response to the attacks – in the case of the Electoral Commission hack, more than three years after it happened. In co-ordinated…
Labour tells China it will act on interference in UK democracy
Labour has warned China that it will respond to any interference in UK democracy after the government announced fresh sanctions against hackers linked to Beijing. The warning came at the party’s first public meeting with the Chinese government since Keir Starmer became Labour leader. Catherine West, the shadow Asia minister, travelled to Beijing last week as part of a delegation of British MPs for meetings with senior Chinese government figures and businesses. On Thursday and Friday, West attended meetings with Wang Huning, one of Xi Jinping’s appointees to China’s powerful…
Chinese ‘state-affiliated’ organisations behind cyber-attacks, says Oliver Dowden – video
Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, has said Chinese state-affiliated actors have been involved in two cyber-attacks on the UK, including the hacking of the Electoral Commission, and attacks aimed at parliamentarians. Dowden said the Foreign Office would summon China’s ambassador to account for its actions The Guardian