China accessed classified UK systems for a decade, officials say
The British official documents classification system has three levels
[LONDON] Chinese state actors systemically and successfully compromised classified UK government computer systems for more than a decade, according to two former senior security officials and other government officials familiar with the matter.
China routinely accessed low and medium level classification information on UK government servers over at least the last 10 years, including information marked “official-sensitive” and “secret”, as well as some material on the government’s secure IT networks, according to the sources, who requested anonymity discussing delicate matters.
The data accessed included confidential documents relating to the formulation of government policy, private communications and some diplomatic cables, the sources said. One described Chinese efforts to access British government systems as endless. Information and intelligence deemed top secret has not been compromised and is held securely, the sources said, pushing back against a report on Wednesday (Oct 15) in The Times newspaper.
One compromise related to a data centre in London used to store some sensitive government information, which was sold to an entity aligned to China when the Conservatives were in power, flagging major security concerns, one of the sources said, confirming a report in the Spectator. Ministers in the then government briefly proposed a plan to destroy the data centre before it was made secure in a different way, they added.
A UK government spokesperson said the “most sensitive” government information and the systems on which it is stored have not been compromised. The Chinese Embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment made outside normal office hours.
The revelations come as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces pressure over his policy towards Beijing in the wake of the aborted prosecution of two men accused of spying for China. On Wednesday, the government said it will publish evidence provided to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by deputy national security adviser, Matthew Collins, which prosecutors had deemed insufficient to secure convictions.
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That case fell apart because successive British governments declined to formally designate China as a threat to national security, the CPS has said.
However, the Chinese attempts to compromise UK government computer systems showed that Beijing posed a significant threat to national security, several of the sources told Bloomberg. All spoke on condition of anonymity, discussing highly sensitive information that has not been made public.
The UK’s official documents classification system has three levels, according to the government’s website. They are “official”, which “includes routine business operations and services, some of which could have damaging consequences if lost, stolen, or published in the media, but which are not subject to a heightened threat profile”.
Secret information, some of which was accessed by China according to the officials, is “where compromise might seriously damage military capabilities, international relations or the investigation of serious organised crime”, according to the website.
Top secret information is the government’s “most sensitive information, requiring the highest levels of protection from the most serious threats, where compromise might cause widespread loss of life or else threaten the security or economic well-being of the country”. That has not been compromised, the sources said.
Starmer has been criticised by opposition politicians for pursuing a thaw in relations with Beijing, despite repeated allegations that China is behind espionage attempts and cyber-attacks in Britain and has provided support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The premier also faces pressure from members of his own Cabinet not to approve an application by China for a new mega-embassy in London. Top foreign office official Olly Robbins is visiting Beijing to push officials there to allow Britain to refurbish its own embassy in China.
This week, the UK’s domestic security service MI5 warned lawmakers and their staff of espionage efforts by China and Russia, while its cyber security agency reported a 50 per cent rise in serious cyber-attacks over the last year, with China described as the “pacing threat”.
Last year, Bloomberg reported that British government officials feared Chinese state actors had made widespread and likely successful efforts to access British critical infrastructure networks.
Earlier on Wednesday, former premier Boris Johnson’s chief of staff in Downing Street, Dominic Cummings, told The Times newspaper that China had hacked secret information from the British government’s classified computer system.
“Vast amounts of data classified as extremely secret and extremely dangerous for any foreign entity to control was compromised,” Cummings said.
Tom Tugendhat, who served as security minister in the Conservative administrations of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak that followed Johnson’s, told LBC radio on Wednesday that “the gist of what Dominic Cummings has put out is correct”, but declined to be more specific. BLOOMBERG
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