UK set to declare China threat to national security after cyber attacks on politicians, electoral commission

The dramatic move comes after Australia and the Five Eyes helped the UK identify China state-affiliated actors as responsible for cyber campaigns targeting MPs and 40m voters.

Penny Wong with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. Picture: AFP

Britain is set to declare China a threat to national security after two malicious cyber campaigns targeting Westminster parliamentarians and Britain’s 40 million voters.

Australia’s Five Eyes spy network supported Britain in identifying China state-affiliated actors as responsible for two malicious cyber campaigns targeting Westminster parliamentarians and Britain’s 40 million voters.

Britain has raised the issue of China’s targeting of British democratic institutions and political processes with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and has made public its concerns about China so “other countries should see the detail of threats that our systems and democracies face”.

Oliver Dowden, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister, also indicated the UK would officially declare China a threat, The Times reports.

In an unprecedented joint operation to expose Chinese espionage, London and Washington revealed details of a decade-long campaign by Beijing to “repress critics, compromise government institutions, and steal trade secrets”, The Times reports.

In the UK ministers revealed that China had successfully gained access to a “treasure trove” of personal information in a cyberattack on Britain’s election watchdog and had attempted to spy on MPs critical of Beijing.

On Monday local time Britain moved to sanction two people and one entity involved with the China state-affiliated group it believes was behind the cyber attacks which occurred in 2021 and 2022.

Zhao Guangzong, 38, and Ni Gaobin, 38 are said to be members of the Advanced Persistent Threat 31 hacking group which has compromised the emails, cloud storage and telephone call records of millions of Americans, the Times reports.

The men also belong to Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Ltd, which the government said was a front organisation for APT31.

The individuals and the entity will have their finances frozen and will be subject to travel bans.

Mr Dowden said “The UK will not tolerate malicious cyber activity targeting our democratic institutions. It is an absolute priority for the UK Government to protect our democratic system and values. The Defending Democracy Taskforce continues to co-ordinate work to build resilience against these threats.

“I hope this statement helps to build wider awareness of how politicians and those involved in our democratic processes around the world are being targeted by state-sponsored cyber operations.

“We will continue to call out this activity, holding the Chinese government accountable for its actions.”

Mr Dowden told the House of Commons the National Cyber Security Centre which is part of the UK’s intelligence and security agency, GCHQ, had assessed that the UK Electoral Commission systems were “highly likely compromised” by a China state-affiliated cyber entity between 2021 and 2022. The hackers attempted to obtain details of the country’s 40 million voters.

The United Kingdom had been supported in its investigations by the Five Eyes partnership of Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Canada in making the assessments.

This had followed reconnaissance activity undertaken in 2021 by APT31.

APT is an acronym commonly referred in the security industry to refer to Advance Persistent Threats and APT31 was accused of attacks on political, economic, and military targets. Back in 2021 Britain had publicly linked APT31 to the Chinese Ministry of State Security following a hack of the Microsoft Exchange Server.

Foreign secretary David Cameron said APT31 had carried out political conducted reconnaissance activity against UK parliamentarians, the majority of whom had been prominently calling out the malign activities of China, during a separate campaign in 2021.

He said: “It is completely unacceptable that China state-affiliated organisations and individuals have targeted our democratic institutions and political processes. While these attempts to interfere with UK democracy have not been successful, we will remain vigilant and resilient to the threats we face.

“I raised this directly with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and we have today sanctioned two individuals and one entity involved with the China state-affiliated group responsible for targeting our parliamentarians.

“We will always defend ourselves from those who seek to threaten the freedoms that underpin our values and democracy. One of the reasons that it is important to make this statement is that other countries should see the detail of threats that our systems and democracies face.”

NZ said its parliamentary system was also targeted by a state-sponsored group known as “APT40” in 2021.

Judith Collins, the country’s Minister of Defence, said New Zealand’s security agencies were able “to contain the activity and remove the actor shortly after they were able to access the network”.

“The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” she said.

Britain in recent times has begun phasing out Chinese owned infrastructure because of fears the Chinese state could gain access through technology systems embedded into equipment. The politicians believed to have been targeted included members of the British Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China which has been investigating China’s activities.

The BBC said the former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former minister Tim Loughton and the SNP’s Stewart McDonald received a briefing from the head of parliamentary security.

Mr Loughton told the BBC: “We need to have a raft of senior Chinese officials seriously sanctioned because of what’s been going on with this cyber attack, what’s going on in Hong Kong [and] in Xinjiang”.

Britain said it has bolstered its cyber defences and to date the cumulative attempts to interfere with UK democracy and politics have not been successful.