Organised gangs of Chinese cyber spies with suspected roots in the Chinese army have for months been hacking into the computer networks of British govt depts.
HONG KONG: Organised gangs of Chinese cyber spies with suspected roots in the Chinese army have for months been hacking into the computer networks of British government departments, including the Foreign Office, according to the latest sensational media revelations.
The Guardian newspaper reported from London on Tuesday, citing unnamed government officials, that computer networks at several Whitehall departments had been hacked into.
Last year, part of the computer system at the House of Commons was shut down following a hack attack, and the crime was traced to an organised Chinese hacking group, at least some of whom are believed to be from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the report added. It quoted an expert as saying that cyber attacks were a “constant ongoing problem”.
The latest allegations of China’s resort to “electronic warfare” came barely a day after reports of the most successful cyber attack on the Pentagon computer systems by hackers with suspected links to the PLA. (Beijing denied the report as “groundless”.) And last week, the German media had alleged similar hack attacks on computer networks in German government departments.
British government officials have not disclosed the extent and nature of the information lost or the damage done to their computer systems or even officially confirmed the cyber attack. Nor did Beijing respond to the fresh allegations.
Read together, the recent reports of hack attacks point to an intensification in China’s cyber warfare strategy, a shift from a defensive to an offensive posture, and the increasing sophistication of its hacking methods.
Since 2003, US investigators are believed to have tracked down an extensive Chinese hacking operation targeting US government networks for sensitive information. The hackers were part of a wider cyber espionage circle that US authorities have codenamed Titan Rain.
In its annual report last year to the US Congress, the Defence Department noted that the PLA was developing developing the ability to launch pre-emptive attacks against enemy computer networks in a crisis. The Chinese were increasingly using civilian computer expertise and equipment to enhance PLA operations, it added.
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