British Parliament Debates Chinese Cyber Attacks

Uploaded on 2024-03-29 in INTELLIGENCE-Hot Spots-China, GOVERNMENT-National, FREE TO VIEW

The British government has formally accused China of being behind what it called "malicious" cyber attack campaigns against MPs and the Electoral Commission. Now, two people and a company have been sanctioned over cyber attacks. The two Chinese nationals sanctioned by the UK are Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin and the company is Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Ltd, said by the British government to work for the China state-affiliated cyber espionage group APT31.

British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has said China presents an “epoch-defining challenge” to the UK from these cyber attacks.

Deputy PM Oliver Dowden said that two who were behind the attack managed to access details of MPs critical of Beijing, as well as 40 million voters data. Dowden has briefed MPs on the cyberthreat from individuals linked to China and he has accused Beijing for the hacking of the details of British voters in a “complex cyber attack” on the Electoral Commission.

The Electoral Commission, which oversees UK elections, said last year that “hostile actors” first breached its network in August 2021, but nobody has been held responsible until now. The British National Cyber Security Centre has sad that APT31 was almost certainly responsible for targeting UK parliamentarians’ emails in 2021.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative party leader, Tim Loughton, a former minister, Stewart McDonald, a Scottish National party MP and Lord David Alton will be briefed by parliament’s head of security, according to government officials.

Conservative MPs are expected to urge Lord David Cameron, the foreign secretary, to take a tougher line on China, at a meeting of the backbench 1922 committee.

At the same time, Chinese battery company EVE is in early-stage talks to invest in a UK plant, according to British officials involved in plans for a new gigafactory near Coventry. Although an investment would further increase the UK’s domestic supply of electric car batteries, crucial for the survival of the automotive industry, it would also increase the country’s reliance on Chinese technology at a time of rising tensions between China and the West.

Envision, which is Chinese, owns the AESC business that makes batteries for Nissan in Sunderland and will supply batteries for the new Tata gigafactory in Somerset.

EVE has carmakers in the UK is already building several battery factories across Europe, including one in Hungary that will supply BMW.

The Chinese embassy in London says these claims of offensive hacking are "completely unfounded" claims amounting to "malicious slander". And a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that Britain's evidence for alleging its electoral commission and MPs had been hacked was "inadequate".

NCSC | Politico | FT | BBC | Sky | Independent | Guardian | BBC

Image: Adi Ulici

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