Britain should expose China’s cybersecurity threat By Reuters

By Andrew MacAskill

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will provide details on Monday about the cybersecurity threat posed by China and may blame Beijing for hacking into its election control, as concerns grow about interference ahead of elections due later this year.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden is expected to make a statement on the issue to parliament on Monday, a government official said, declining to confirm whether he will also announce retaliation including sanctions.

Anxiety is growing over China’s alleged spying activity in Britain, particularly after it emerged last year that a parliamentary researcher had been arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

A group of British MPs, known critics of China, were summoned for a briefing by parliament’s security director on Monday, a source told Reuters.

Ahead of Dowden’s statement in parliament, British media also reported that the government should blame Beijing for a cyberattack on the country’s electoral commission. The attack dates back to 2021 and was made public last year and allowed hostile actors to access the data of millions of voters.

The government said last year that Chinese spies were targeting British officials in sensitive positions in politics, defense and business as part of an increasingly sophisticated espionage operation to gain access to secrets.

The Chinese embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last year, the embassy accused the British government of “making unfounded accusations” when the head of MI5 accused China of waging an espionage campaign on an “epic scale”.

Britain’s domestic intelligence service, MI5, said it is now conducting seven times more investigations into Chinese activity than in 2018 and plans more.

In 2022, MI5 issued a rare security alert, warning members of parliament that a suspected Chinese spy was “involved in political interference activity” in Britain.