Achi news desk-
Oliver Dowden tells MPs ‘state-linked’ Chinese organizations behind cyber attacks on Electoral Commission and MPs
Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM, makes his statement in the House of Commons. It says it involves malicious cyber activity directed at the UK by Chinese state-linked actors.
It says Chinese state-linked actors have been involved in two cyber attacks on the UK: the hacking of the Electoral Commission, and attacks aimed at parliamentarians.
It says international partners, including the US, will make statements today about similar Chinese cyber-attacks they have suffered.
Key events
Dowden dismisses Labor questions about Cameron’s China ties as ‘hopeless stuff’
Stephen Kinnock (Lab) asks about David Cameron’s visit to Sri Lanka to support a Chinese investment plan. He says the Foreign Office has not responded to Freedom of Information requests about this. Will Dowden make sure he does?
Dowden says this is “pretty desperate stuff”. It does on:
Trying to link Chinese cyber attacks to our current foreign secretary doesn’t wash.
This is our story on Dowden’s publication Pippa Crerar a This year Courea.
Richard Ford (Liberal Democrats) say after the Salisbury novichok attack 130 Russian diplomats were expelled from over 25 countries. Why wasn’t there a similar response this time?
Dowden says there will be an international response. He says that the United States and other countries are making their own statements, even now or very soon.
Stuart C McDonald The SNP said, judging from the statement, that Dowden “turned up in a gunfight with a wooden spoon”.
Suella Bravermanthe former home secretary, “it is abundantly clear that China is a hostile state and an unprecedented threat to our national security”.
She said she was responsible for passing the National Security Act. There was a “compelling case” for putting China in the wider scrutiny field.
Dowden says the government is still trying to reach an agreement on whether to subject China to ‘enhanced’ scrutiny under the National Security Act
The Conservative MP Tim Loughton, who like Iain Duncan Smith is one of the MPs who has been approved by Beijing, says he is “surprised” by the statement.
It asks whether China will be brought into the wider purview of the National Security Act 2023, meaning that people acting on its behalf in the UK would be subject to closer scrutiny to recognize the threat they pose. cause it. (See 9.31am.)
Dowden says that the government is currently in the process of obtaining “joint government agreement” on the wider field decision. He says the evidence he has produced today “will have a very strong influence on the decision we make”.
Dowden describes anti-China measures as ‘first step’ after being prompted to describe Beijing as ‘threat’
Sir Iain Duncan Smiththe former Tory leader, describing the statement as something like “an elephant giving birth to a mouse”.
He says that the Americans have sanctioned 40 people over Hong Kong; the UK has not sanctioned anyone.
It is no longer acceptable to describe China as an “era-defining challenge”, he said. (See 11.49am.) It goes on:
They are certainly a threat. It can [the goverment] now correcting that so we all know where we are?
Dowden says these measures are only a “first step”. It goes on:
The government will always respond proportionately in relation to the facts before it.
No one should be in any doubt about the government’s determination to confront and deal with these threats to our national security wherever they come from.
Dowden replies McFadden.
He says it is up to China to explain its motives.
On the Electoral Commission, he says the Chinese did not have access to the closed register – the names of people whose names are not on the public register.
As for David Cameron, he says the usual appropriateness checks were carried out before he was appointed.
And, on Cameron’s later appearance at the 1922 Committee, Dowden says that will be a broad meeting, and not a specific briefing on China. He suggests that if the opposition parties want a briefing on China, they might be offered one.
Pat McFadden, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, is responding now.
He says Labor will support the government to protect democracy.
He asks why the government thinks China wants to hack the electoral roll.
He asks whether it is believed that China will engage in the type of “hack and leak” activities that Russia has been engaging in.
And he asks what the governmnet has done to investigate the suggestion in the intelligence and security committee report that David Cameron’s role as vice-president of a UK-China investment fund was “engineered” n part by the Chinese state to give credibility to Chinese investment, as well as to the wider China brand”.
Dowden says that the Chinese ambassador is being called in to be held to account for these events.
But he says the government “does not accept that China’s relationship with the UK is set on a predetermined course”. He says that what happens in the future depends on the choice China makes.
New guidelines are being issued to political organizations about what they need to do to protect themselves from cyber attacks, he said.
He says the UK’s political processes have not been harmed by these attacks.
The government will continue to call this activity out in the strongest terms, he said.
He ends by saying:
The cyber threat posed by China-linked actors is real and serious. But our determination and our determination to oppose him are more than equal.
Dowden says cyber attacks show ‘clear and ongoing pattern’ of ‘hostile intent’ from China
Dowden says the Electoral Commission has been subject to a complex cyber attack between 2021 and 2022.
But this will not jeopardize elections, he said.
And it says a second cyber attack, “almost certainly” by the Chinese state-linked APT31 group, is aimed at UK parliamentary accounts. It says the attack was thwarted by parliament’s cyber security system and was “absolutely unsuccessful”.
But targeting MPs in this way is “completely unacceptable”, he said.
It goes on:
Taken together, the United Kingdom believes that these actions demonstrate a clear and ongoing pattern of behavior that is indicative of hostile intent from China. That is why the UK has today sanctioned two individuals and one entity linked to the Chinese state-linked APT31 group for engaging in malicious cyber activity.
Oliver Dowden tells MPs ‘state-linked’ Chinese organizations behind cyber attacks on Electoral Commission and MPs
Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM, makes his statement in the House of Commons. It says it involves malicious cyber activity directed at the UK by Chinese state-linked actors.
It says Chinese state-linked actors have been involved in two cyber attacks on the UK: the hacking of the Electoral Commission, and attacks aimed at parliamentarians.
He says international partners, including the US, will make statements today about similar Chinese cyber-attacks they have suffered.
