All these days Russia and its intelligence services were blamed for launching cyber attacks on the digital infrastructure of private and public entities operating in the West. But now, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has blamed Chinese secret services for initiating sustained cyber attacks on the west to steal business secrets and to generate political unrest in the respective countries.
Jeremy Hunt says that recently British spies have gathered classified info against Beijing based hacking group APT10 which is being funded by the Chinese government. The think tank says that China could be behind the hacking of several corporate giants which is a clear-cut breach to the international agreements made at the G20 Summit.
Readers of Cybersecurity insiders have to notify a fact over here that the startling claims come despite the cordial relationship being maintained by British ministers to establish a ‘diamond trade era’ with the Chinese government.
As the latest developments go against the commitments made to the UK in 2015 by the Xi Jinping, the British government says that it is not going to tolerate such actions any further.
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May’s official spokesperson added in his statement that all these developments are pressurizing his government to take stringent action against China in due course of time- after consultation with the countries allies.
On the other hand, the United States government has indicted two Chinese nationals with the charges of computer hacking attacks. This includes charges for launching cyber attacks on two government corporations – the navy and the space agency NASA.
The names of the 2 Chinese nationals are Zhu Hua and Zhang Jianguo, who are accused of working for Chinese Ministry of state security and were, caught red-handedly stealing intellectual property and classical business and technological info from companies operating in over dozen countries including Canada.
So, will all this sensitivity lead to a strain in the business relationship with China…?
Well, only time can answer this question in a better way!
