Hackers affiliated with the Chinese communist regime were responsible for two “malicious cyber campaigns” on the Electoral Commission and against parliamentarians, the deputy prime minister has said.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told the House of Commons on Monday that “actors affiliated with the Chinese state” were involved in “malicious cyber activity,” specifically the Electoral Commission hack and a campaign of online “reconnaissance” aimed at the email accounts of MPs and peers.
In response, the UK is sanctioning a front company and two individuals involved with the Chinese regime-affiliated hacking group, APT31.
“The cyber threat posed by China-affiliated actors is real and it is serious,” Mr. Dowden said. “But it is more than equalled by our determination and resolve to resist it. That is how we defend ourselves and our precious democracy.”
Electoral Commission
“I can confirm today that Chinese state affiliated actors were responsible for two malicious cyber campaigns targeting both our democratic institutions and parliamentarians,” Mr. Dowden told MPs.“This is the latest in a clear pattern of hostile activity originating in China, including the targeting of democratic institutions and parliamentarians, in the United Kingdom and beyond,” the deputy prime minister said.
“We have seen this in China’s continued disregard for universal human rights and international commitments in Xinjiang. China’s erasure of dissenting voices and stifling of the opposition under the new National Security Law in Hong Kong, and the disturbing reports of Chinese intimidation and aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea,” he continued.
Hackers were first able to access the Electoral Commission’s system in August 2021, in what Mr. Dowden described as a “complex cyber attack,” gaining access to the Electoral Commission’s email and file sharing systems, which contain copies of the electoral register. But the infiltration had not been identified until October 2022, meaning that hackers had access to the details of tens of millions of British voters for over a year.
APT31
The deputy prime minister said that according to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of GCHQ, the second malicious cyber attack was undertaken by the Chinese regime-affiliated actor known as APT31.Mr. Dowden said APT31 had sought to conduct “reconnaissance activity against UK parliamentary accounts” during a separate campaign in 2021.
Mr. Dowden said: "This email campaign by APT31 was blocked by Parliament’s cyber security measures. In this case, it was entirely unsuccessful.
‘Hostile Intent From China’
The deputy prime minister said that these two attacks demonstrate “a clear and persistent pattern of behaviour that signals hostile intent from China.”In response, Mr. Dowden said that the UK would sanction two individuals and one entity associated with the APT31 group “for involvement in malicious cyber activity, targeting officials, government entities, and parliamentarians around the world.”
“We are today acting to warn of the breadth of targeting emanating from Chinese state affiliated actors, like APT31, to sanction those actors who attempt to threaten our democratic institutions, and to deter both China and all those who seek to do the same,” he said.
The deputy prime minister said that later on Monday, a number of the UK’s international partners, including the United States, will be issuing similar statements “to expose this activity and to hold China to account for the ongoing patterns of hostile activity targeting our collective democracies.”
MPs Will Not Be ‘Bullied Into Silence by Beijing’
Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said critics of the communist regime “have been subjected to harassment, impersonation and attempted hacking from China for some time,” but MPs would not be “bullied into silence by Beijing.”“We must now enter a new era of relations with China, dealing with the contemporary Chinese Communist Party as it really is, not as we would wish it to be,” Sir Iain said.
“Today’s announcement should mark a watershed moment where the UK takes a stand for values of human rights and the international rules-based system on which we all depend,” he added.
However, he criticised the government for not taking more decisive action, likening it to “an elephant giving birth to a mouse.”
Addressing the House of Commons after Mr. Dowden’s speech, Sir Iain said, “The reality is that in those three years the Chinese have trashed the Sino–British agreement, they have been committing murder and slave labour and genocide in Xinjiang, we have had churches broken, and in Hong Kong false court cases against Jimmy Lai.”
“America has sanctioned over 40 people in Hong Kong, we have sanctioned none, and three lowly officials only in Xinjiang,” he said.
Mr. Dowden replied: “Nobody should be in any doubt about the gravity of this matter. They’re not the actions of a friendly state and they do require our serious attention. This, as has been described by [Sir Iain], is an escalating situation.
“The measures we’ve announced today are the first step but the government will respond proportionately at all times in relation to the facts in front of it. But no-one should be in any doubt about the government’s determination to face down and deal with these threats to our national security from wherever they come .”
