British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has told parliament that China is behind a series of cyberattacks on British politicians. This was reported by Bloomberg, citing sources from The Times.
According to reports, Alison Giles, the Director of Security for the British Parliament, met with a small group of Chinese politicians who are part of the inter-parliamentary alliance.
The Times claims that the cyberattacks are part of a Chinese interference wave that aims to undermine British democracy. However, a government spokesperson declined to comment for the newspaper.
The Chinese Embassy in London also did not respond to an email seeking comment.
A British parliamentary committee warned last year that the government’s response to China’s national security threat was “wholly inadequate,” placing too much emphasis on short-term economic gains rather than long-term risks.
Recently Reuters reported that the US government has been conducting an operation against a large-scale Chinese hacking attack that hacked thousands of devices with access to critical information for several months, according to reports at the end of January.
For several months now, the US government has been conducting an operation against a large-scale Chinese hacking attack that hacked thousands of devices with access to critical information.
According to agency sources, the Department of Justice and the FBI went to court and received permission to remotely disable some of the hacking campaign’s tools.
The US presidential administration has been paying increasing attention to cyberattacks, not only because of fears that nation-states may try to disrupt the November elections but also because ransomware wreaked havoc in the corporate sector last year.
The intelligence community is concerned about the Volt Typhoon hacker group. The hackers claim to be part of an effort to compromise critical Western infrastructure, including naval ports, Internet service providers, and utilities.
Security researchers told Reuters that Volt Typhoon takes control of a multitude of vulnerable digital devices around the world, such as routers, modems, and surveillance cameras, to hide further attacks on more sensitive targets.
This collection of remotely controlled systems, known as a botnet, is of primary concern to security officials because it limits the visibility of cyber defenders.
According to US national security experts, such breaches could allow China to remotely disable critical facilities in the Indo-Pacific region that support or service US military operations. Sources said that officials are concerned that the hackers are working to damage US preparedness in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
