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The UK’s Foreign Office was the victim of a major cyber attack in October, which officials believe was carried out by Chinese hackers.
The hack, which was not made public, was an attempt to gain access to tens of thousands of sensitive files, and raises concerns about the security of government databases.
Chris Bryant, trade minister, confirmed on Friday that the attack had taken place but refused to speculate on the identity of the perpetrators. “There certainly has been a hack at the FCDO and we’ve been aware of that since October.”
Bryant said he was not able to say “whether it is directly related to Chinese operatives or indeed the Chinese state”.
However, initial investigations suggested the hack was carried out by Chinese hackers, according to multiple officials. The Sun newspaper named the likely perpetrators as Storm 1849, a cyber gang linked to the Chinese government, but officials said that had not been confirmed.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it was “working to investigate a cyber incident”. It added: “We take the security of our systems and data extremely seriously.” Officials said that speculation about potential actors was “unhelpful”.
The revelation is awkward for the UK government given that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is visiting China next month in an attempt to boost economic links between the nations.
Starmer is also expected to approve a vast new Chinese embassy on the edge of the City of London within weeks, despite concerns about potential spying from the site. Security services had expressed concerns about the proposed development near the Tower of London, close to fibre optic cables carrying sensitive information.
Starmer’s visit to Shanghai and Beijing at the end of January is the first such trip since former Tory prime minister Theresa May visited China in 2018. In early December Starmer said in a speech to a City of London audience that the UK needed to take a “more sophisticated” approach to its relationship with China, saying bilateral ties had “blown hot and cold” for years.
Starmer is expected to raise human rights concerns with his Chinese hosts, including the recent conviction of Hong Kong billionaire media mogul Jimmy Lai on national security charges, which critics see as evidence of fast-eroding political freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.
Bryant told Sky News there was a minimal risk to “any individual” from the cyber attack.
There has been a spate of cyber attacks this year on British institutions and companies including Marks and Spencer, Jaguar Land Rover and the British Library.
Rachel Reeves, UK chancellor, said this year that “hostile states like Russia” were behind some of the incidents.
Four years ago the Electoral Commission suffered a major cyber attack, which the government subsequently blamed on Chinese state-sponsored hackers, with two people and a company having sanctions imposed by ministers.
