UK accuses China of cyberattacks on British democracy

“Taken together these actions demonstrate a clear and persistent pattern of behavior that signals hostile intent from China,” 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,” he added.

Dowden’s statement marks a shift in the U.K.’s readiness to call out Beijing’s cyberattacks, and came amid similar action from the United States, which indicted seven Chinese individuals for alleged efforts to conduct malicious cyber operations against critical networks Monday.

Yet China hawks in the governing Conservative Party sounded less-than-impressed with the scale of Britain’s response.

Watchdog attack

The assessment from British security chiefs has two strands: the targeting of elections watchdog Electoral Commission, and the targeting of MPs critical of Beijing.

The Electoral Commission announced last year that it had been hit by a complex cyberattack in which its systems were accessed by then-unnamed “hostile actors.”

According to a release by Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Monday, the country’s security services found that the Commission’s systems were “highly likely compromised by a China state-affiliated cyber entity between 2021 and 2022.”

The U.K. foreign office, in its own statement, stressed that this “malicious” activity had not had an impact on Britain’s electoral processes.

But the NCSC said it was “highly likely” that Electoral Commission email data had been accessed and taken in the attack, and that this information would “highly likely be used by the Chinese intelligence services for a range of purposes, including large-scale espionage and transnational repression of perceived dissidents and critics in the U.K.”

MPs targeted

Dowden’s statement also included claims that British parliamentarians have been in the firing line.

The Sunday Times reported this weekend that a number of MPs were directly targeted by China.

The foreign office said it was “almost certain” that APT31 — a hacking crew with links to the Chinese state — had “conducted reconnaissance activity against U.K. parliamentarians during a separate campaign in 2021.”

Dowden announced that the U.K. is sanctioning two people linked to both the Chinese state and to APT31, which was also hit by action from the U.S. government Monday.

But Tory MP Tim Loughton, one of those said to be targeted by Chinese cyberattacks, said he was “underwhelmed” by Dowden’s comments. He questioned the move to sanction just two people — and to target a company that hired just 50 people.

Another of the targeted MPs — the Scottish National MP Stewart McDonald — said Dowden had “turned up at a gunfight with a wooden spoon.”

“He hasn’t sanctioned a single Chinese state official,” McDonald lamented.

China was swift to reject the U.K.’s assessment.

Speaking ahead of Dowden’s announcement Monday morning, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian accused London of “spreading disinformation.”

“Designations of cyberattacks are a highly complex and sensitive issue,” Lin told a press conference. “There should be comprehensive and objective evidence, rather than slandering other countries without any factual support, let alone politicizing cybersecurity issues.”

This developing story is being updated.