Either China is becoming more aggressive. Or maybe England is searching harder for the rocks and what lies beneath them. Or both.
Numbers revealing the extent of China’s covert attacks on the West are few.
But MI5’s director general, Ken McCallum, revealed during a rare trip in July 2022 that the number of operations carried out by the intelligence agency against China had increased sevenfold in just four years.
During the same period, MI5 doubled the size of its Chinese mission to combat the threat.
Just last month, US FBI director Christopher Wray issued the harshest warning, stating that China had already infiltrated critical infrastructure such as the energy, water and communications sectors and was waiting for “the right moment to strike a devastating blow.”
The latest hack in the UK for which Beijing has been blamed – Ministry of Defense payroll data including sensitive details on military personnel – is hugely embarrassing for the Government and shows that no place is safe from cyber attacks in China.
The hack is a victory for Beijing, but it’s also not surprising.
The security services are aware of the threat to the UK posed by China, which has long been recognized as posing the greatest risk to the long-term security of the West.
China has been accused of investing heavily in teams of cyber hackers determined to harvest vast amounts of personal information and steal intellectual property that gives the regime a competitive advantage.
China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) has developed advanced cyberhacking operations that could rival Western intelligence agencies.
While he has in the past targeted what some have described as the “soft underbelly” of tech firms, in the last few years he appears to have become emboldened and has also attacked the British state.
These are not Russian agents chattering around Salisbury with the nerve agent stuffing Novichok into a bag, but armies of hackers probing for weaknesses in British cyber defences.
‘Offices bigger than MI5’
MSS headquarters is located in Beijing, and there are security offices of varying sizes in cities and provinces across the country.
MSS offices in more important locations such as Shanghai and Guangdong are understood to be “larger than MI5”.
The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), an arm of MI5, has identified a number of hacking gangs operating out of China.
In March, it said it had traced failed attempts to hack MPs’ email accounts to a group called APT 31.
The group has been operating for 13 years; China is playing the long game.
In another example of authorities exposing Chinese espionage, in March Britain publicly accused Xi Jinping’s regime of targeting an Electoral Commission observer and being behind an online “reconnaissance” campaign targeting the email accounts of MPs and their colleagues.
APT 31 was also accused of interfering in the 2020 US elections and was linked to a widespread attack on Microsoft systems in 2021 that gained access to thousands of email servers. APT 31 is also known more colorfully as Violet Typhoon, Judgment Panda, Bronze Vinewood and Zirconium.
APT stands for “advanced persistent threat” and is a naming convention used by Western cyber intelligence agencies to describe hacking groups linked to foreign adversaries.
There are more than two dozen identified Chinese APT groups.
APT 31 uses commonly used email phishing techniques, where victims are encouraged to click on malicious links that steal details.
In January, the FBI said a Chinese group it called Volt Typhoon had infected hundreds of old routers with Chinese malware to penetrate critical infrastructure, including a military outpost in the Pacific Ocean.
Analysis by cybersecurity firm Lumen found that the hostile Chinese “botnet” had been active on routers in the US for almost two years and was undetectable by the user because it did not block its operation.
Mr. Xi has identified science and technology as the economy’s main battleground.
It is just one of the cyber hacking weapons. He also places spies on the ground.
The Chinese regime is also running long-term espionage operations and establishing contacts in the UK that could be used to gain influence in the coming years.
Lawyer Christine Lee was accused of being a Chinese spy by MI5 in January 2022.
The domestic intelligence service took the unprecedented step of issuing a warning to Parliament warning MPs to stay away from her and accusing Ms Lee of “deliberate political interference”.
Ms Lee denies the allegations (she has not yet been charged with any criminal offences) and is suing MI5, demanding to know the basis of the allegations.
For now, the West and China are effectively at war.
This is not a war you would see, and there are no civilian casualties.
The attack on the Defense Department’s payroll is just the latest conflict.
In the long run, if China wins, it will become the world’s leading superpower. The risks are so high.