Once upon a time Britain would have sent a gunboat up the Yangtze River. That would teach those Chinese a lesson. To hear some MPs talk about Beijing’s espionage activities, you would think gunboats were already on their way. Of course, it is malicious and hurtful for a foreign state patently to hack into Britain’s Electoral Commission and target senior parliamentarians – as the government on Monday claimed China did in 2021. It is equally malicious to fabricate MPs’ emails and use a Commons researcher as an informant. No less…
Tag: UK news
China cyber-attacks: this growing threat to UK security will not go away
In March last year an integrated review of the UK’s defence and foreign policy said it would protect the country’s “democratic freedoms” from Chinese state attacks. A few months later the Electoral Commission confirmed why democratic institutions and processes were on the threat list as it revealed that a cyber-attack – by a then unidentified assailant – had accessed the data of 40 million voters. On Monday the UK government said an unnamed Chinese state-backed actor was behind the sortie and that a Beijing-affiliated group, called APT31, was likely to…
Is mild man Dowden up to the threat of China’s cyber campaign? | Zoe Williams
The deputy prime minister’s statement on cybersecurity and China-backed attempts to undermine UK democracy had been briefed far enough in advance that MPs had had time to sharpen their insults. Iain Duncan Smith said Oliver Dowden’s announcement was like watching an elephant giving birth to a mouse. The SNP member Stuart C McDonald accused Dowden of taking a wooden spoon to a gunfight. Labour’s Chris Bryant called him “wilfully blind, and therefore dangerous”. The inattentive observer might come away from the statement unclear on who posed the greater threat to…
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 hackers targeted Electoral Commission and politicians, say security services
Chinese state-backed hackers were responsible for two malicious digital campaigns targeting the UK’s democratic institutions and politicians, the security services have found. The UK holds China responsible for a prolonged cyber-attack on the Electoral Commission during which Beijing allegedly accessed the personal details of about 40 million voters. The National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, also found that four British parliamentarians who have been critical of Beijing were targeted in a separate attack, although the activity was identified before any systems were compromised. Two individuals and a front company…
A Chinese ‘wolf warrior’ impersonated me, says Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith has said he was impersonated by a pro-China “wolf warrior” and has called for the country to be labelled a threat to UK security. The former Tory leader said on Monday that the “wolf warrior”, a term used for combative proponents of the Chinese government, had impersonated him and sent emails to politicians around the world suggesting he had changed his views about Beijing. He was speaking at a press conference with two other MPs who were briefed by security services on Monday about cyber-attacks against them…
Threats, fear and surveillance: how China targets students in the UK who criticise regime
The first time Liying* realised she was being watched, she was on her way home from an anti-Beijing protest outside the Chinese embassy in London in 2022. The sky was dark, and Liying – a student in her 20s from China – was walking with a fellow protester, megaphone in hand, when she noticed a stranger lurking behind them. The pair quickened their pace but the man, who looked Chinese, kept following. Ten minutes passed; then 20. Eventually, they ran into a nearby hospital and hid for more than half…
Government urged to end its ‘naivety on China’ as Dowden to brief MPs on Beijing’s role in cyber-attacks – UK politics live
From 45m ago Government urged to end its ‘naivety on China’ as Dowden to brief MPs on Beijing’s role in cyber-attacks Good morning. Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are both far away from Westminster this morning. Sunak is in Barrow-in-Furness, promoting a £200m investment in nuclear submarines, and Starmer is on Anglesey, promoting Labour’s plans for offshore wind. In London it looks as if the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, will be grabbing the headlines. He is making a statement to MPs about Chinese cyber-attacks on the UK and, as…
UK ‘slow to hold China to account’ for cyber-attacks against MPs and voters
The UK government has been too slow to respond to cyber-attacks by China, the head of an international group of parliamentarians focusing on the issue has said, ahead of expected new British sanctions against Beijing. Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, is expected to announce the sanctions in the Commons on Monday, after what the UK says have been cyber-attacks against MPs and peers, as well as one targeting the Electoral Commission in which Beijing allegedly accessed the personal details of about 40 million voters. Three MPs and a peer…
Details of millions of UK voters accessed by Chinese state, ministers will say
The personal details of millions of voters are believed to have been accessed in an attack by China on Britain’s democratic process, ministers will say. MPs and peers are thought to be among 43 people who the government looks set to confirm have been targeted by cyber-attacks backed by the Chinese state. The UK could impose sanctions on individuals believed to be involved in these acts of state-backed interference, one of which was a separate attack on the Electoral Commission in which Beijing accessed the personal details of about 40…