China “state-affiliated actors” have been blamed by the government for two “malicious” cyber attack campaigns in the UK.
Making a speech in the Commons, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden revealed the two incidents involved an attack on the Electoral Commission – responsible for overseeing elections and political finance – in 2021, and targeted attacks against China-sceptic MPs.
He confirmed the Foreign Office would be summoning the Chinese ambassador “to account for China’s conduct in these incidents”, and that the UK, alongside international partners such as the US, would be issuing sanctions.
Mr Dowden told MPs: “The cyber threat posed by China affiliated actors is real and it is serious, but it is more than equalled by our determination and resolve to resist it.
“That is how we defend ourselves and our precious democracy.”
But he faced condemnation from backbench Tories for not going far enough, with former immigration minister Robert Jenrick calling the actions of the UK government “feeble” and “derisory”, and foreign affairs committee chair Alicia Kearns deeming them “sadly insufficient”.
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According to the National Cyber Security Centre, the incident at the commission, discovered in 2022, saw the Electoral Roll compromised, including the names and addresses of tens of millions of voters.
But “reconnaissance activity” in 2021, targeting the accounts of former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative education minister Tim Loughton, crossbench peer Lord Alton of Liverpool and SNP MP Stewart McDonald was unsuccessful.
The latter of the campaigns…
