English Version:
The United States and the United Kingdom are teaming up with allied nations to combat the escalating cyber threats from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Officials from the US and UK issued warnings on Tuesday, stating that the “irresponsible actions” of CCP-backed hackers were making the world wide web less secure.
During the CyberUK 2024 international conference on network technology and security held in the central city of Birmingham, the first female director of the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Anne Keast-Butler, expressed that the UK intelligence community is collaborating with the Five Eyes alliance and other countries, as well as working with industry and academia to curb and combat cyber threats originating from the CCP.
Keast-Butler cautioned, “China (CCP) poses a significant threat to international norms and values through its coercive and destabilizing actions.”
She stated, “China (CCP) presents a real and increasingly serious cyber risk to the UK.” Her department is dedicating more resources to countering CCP threats than any other single task.
Keast-Butler emphasized, “While Russia and Iran pose direct threats, it is CCP that presents an ‘epochal’ challenge.”
She added, “We have repeatedly condemned Chinese (CCP) cyber threats targeting UK security or activities against our critical institutions, such as the disruption of the UK Electoral Commission.”
The CCP authorities have consistently denied engaging in overseas cyber attacks and espionage activities. Following the indictment of three men in the UK for collecting information for the Hong Kong intelligence department and committing offenses related to foreign interference, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) summoned the Chinese Ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, for a reprimand as directed by Foreign Secretary David Cameron. Beijing swiftly rebutted, alleging that the UK was engaging in “anti-China political provocations.”
The UK Foreign Office explicitly stated in a Tuesday statement, “China’s recent behavior towards the UK, including cyber attacks, espionage activity reports, and issuing of arrest warrants, is unacceptable.”
US intelligence security agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), had warned earlier this year that CCP-funded hacker organization “Volt Typhoon” has been infiltrating critical infrastructure networks in the US for up to five years. The CCP authorities have denied these allegations.
Harry Coker Jr, the US National Cyber Director, stated at the CyberUK 2024 conference that CCP military hackers are evading US cyber defenses and targeting American interests on an “unprecedented scale.”
He mentioned, “The CCP military has invested significant resources to establish their network programs and aims to embed capabilities in foreign civil infrastructure, causing ‘serious disruptions’ in times of crisis.”
He added, “The US government has identified and disrupted CCP military efforts to pre-deploy on our critical infrastructure networks, and we will continue to retaliate.”
CyberUK is an annual two-day event organized by the GCHQ National Cyber Security Centre, bringing together global leaders in technology and network security. This year’s conference theme is “Future Technologies, Future Threats, Future Preparedness,” where global cyber security experts will share insights on AI, quantum computing, network skills, and threats to national critical infrastructure.