The UK government has made a formal accusation that China has been behind the “malicious” cyber campaigns aimed towards MPs and the country’s Electoral Commission. Two people and a company have been sanctioned over these cyber-attacks. The deputy PM, Oliver Dowden, has stated that the individuals were responsible for accessing information related to MPs and peers who were critical of Beijing. The individuals have also accessed personal data of 40 million voters; however, the security of the elections was not compromised, according to Mr Dowden.
The UK sanctions will freeze assets, and travel bans will be imposed on those individuals, which prohibit them from entering or remaining in the UK. The Chinese ambassador has been called in to be held accountable for China’s activities in these incidents. The Chinese government consistently denies accusations of espionage and wrongdoing. The MPs targeted by the cyber campaigns are all members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which scrutinizes Beijing’s activities.
The country’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, and minister for home affairs and cyber security, Clare O’Neill, have issued a joint statement expressing concerns over the “persistent targeting of democratic institutions and processes.” Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former minister Tim Loughton and the SNP’s Stewart McDonald all faced harassment, failed hacks and impersonations by groups seeking to influence foreign officials.
The UK has joined the US, which has announced that the same two Chinese nationals are among a group of seven facing criminal charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud in New York. The sanctions against China mark an escalation in the diplomatic tension between the two countries. Sanctioning groups linked to China, a fellow member of the UN Security Council, is a significant change from just a few years ago when British leaders aimed to usher in a “Golden Age” with China
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