Chinese hackers, some believed to be from the People's Liberation Army, have been attacking the computer networks of British government departments.
The attackers have hit the network at the Foreign Office as well as those in other key departments, according to officials.
The Ministry of Defense declined on Tuesday to say whether it had been hit. An incident last year that shut down part of the House of Commons computer system, initially believed to be by an individual, was discovered to be the work of an organized Chinese hacking group, officials said.
Security and defense officials are coy about what they know of specific attacks.
However, they say several government departments have fallen victim to Chinese attacks.
One expert described it as a "constant ongoing problem."
The disclosures came after reports that the Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June. The Financial Times said US officials called it the most successful cyber attack on the US defense department.
Defense department officials confirmed that there had been a "detected penetration" of elements of the e-mail system used by the network serving the office of Robert Gates, the US defense secretary. US officials were reported to have said an investigation had found that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was responsible.
The US gave the codename "Titan Rain" to the growing number of Chinese attacks, notably directed at the Pentagon but also hitting other US government departments.
The latest attack caused some minor administrative disruptions, but there had been no adverse impact on operations, an official said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is reported to have raised the issue of Chinese attacks on her government's computers during a visit to Beijing. Officials here declined to say whether the British government had raised the issue with the Chinese authorities.
Alex Neill, China expert and head of the Asia Security Programme at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said cyber attacks by the Chinese had been going on for at least four years.
He described the reported attack on the Pentagon as the "most flagrant and brazen to date."
He said such attacks reflected a new doctrine of the PLA described as "pressure point warfare" -- attacking specific nodes to leave the adversary paralyzed.
The incidents should be seen against the background of the forthcoming 17th Chinese Communist party congress, which could determine the next generation of leaders, and the PLA keen to flex its muscles, Neill suggested.
The attacks on the Pentagon's computer system were described by Sandra Bell, head of RUSI's homeland security department, as "very much a wake-up call."
"The Chinese see no difference between asymmetric warfare and conventional warfare," Bell said.
Analysts have argued over the seriousness of the attacks, and China has denied responsibility. However, the latest attack was said by officials yesterday to be the most serious discovered so far.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RSS