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The U.K. politics has blamed China for a 2021 cyberattack that compromised the personal information of millions of U.K. voters .
In a command to lawmaker in Parliament on Monday , U.K. deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden attribute the 2021 data rift at the Electoral Commission to hacker working for the Formosan governance .
Dowden told lawmakers that the U.K. government “ will not waver to take swift and full-bodied actions wherever the Chinese political science threatens the United Kingdom ’s interests . ”
It ’s the first time the United Kingdom has impute the break since the cyberattackwas first disclose in 2023 .
The Electoral Commission , which maintains copies of the U.K. register of citizens eligible to vote , say at the time hackers took the names and addresses of an estimated 40 million U.K. citizens , include those who wereregistered to vote between 2014 and 2022and oversea elector . The information breach begin as betimes as 2021 but was n’t find until a class afterward .
In a statement Monday , the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre ( NCSC ) say it is “ extremely likely ” that the Chinese hackers get at and exfiltrated emails and data point from the electoral register during the hack .
The NCSC tell Taiwanese news could use the data for “ declamatory - weighing machine espionage and multinational repression of perceived dissidents and critic in the U.K. ”
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When reached by TechCrunch , a spokesperson for the NCSC declined to attribute the Electoral Commission ’s data transgress to any specific China - backed threat doer .
Dowden said that a separate attempt cyberattack by a China - back hacking group target the electronic mail account of U.K. lawmakers in 2021 , but that parliamentary authority mitigated the assay breach before any email write up were compromise .
The NCSC impute those set about email plug to a group of Formosan cyber-terrorist dubbed APT31 , which is known for target the online accounts of foreign government officials . certificate researchers say APT31 uses malware adequate to of creating back entrance into systems and exfiltrating sensitive information . The Norse government previouslyattributed a 2018 data breachon its systems to APT31 .
The U.K. did not say which lawmakers ’ electronic mail chronicle were point , but the NCSC enunciate most of the stirred lawmakers have been “ prominent in calling out the malign activity of China . ”
Liu Pengyu , a voice for the Chinese Embassy in the U.K. , denied the allegations , and aver that China “ does not encourage , support or condone attacks launched by drudge , ” but added that China will “ resort to rightful methods ” to counter cyberattacks .
“ The malicious activity we have exposed today are indicative of a wider normal of unacceptable conduct we are seeing from China body politic - affiliate actors against the UK and around the human race , ” said Paul Chichester , film director of operations at NCSC . “ The targeting of our democratic system of rules is unacceptable and the NCSC will continue to call out cyber actors who beat a terror to the institutions and time value that bear out our society . ”
The Biden administration , also Monday , accusedseveral Chinese hackersof amour with APT31 ’s efforts to point U.S.-based companionship . In 2020 , Google security researcher linkedAPT31 to the targeting of email accountsbelonging to the Trump and Biden presidential campaigns .
Last month , a set of leak documents from Formosan government contractile organ I - Soon revealedhow the secret contractile organ targets and taxicab other governmentsat the request of Formosan authorities .
Spyware leak offer ‘ first - of - its - kind ’ feeling inside Formosan political science hacking efforts
