Security News > 2024 > May > Stifling Beijing in cyberspace is now British intelligence’s number-one mission

That's not to say Russia is in the background - far from it - but more of a focus is being placed on China and the "Epoch-defining challenge" it presents.

It's a major U-turn on the agency's attitudes toward cybersecurity from as recently as 2021, when former NCSC CEO Lindy Cameron said ransomware was the foremost threat to the UK. The people of China have contributed so much to the UK, AKB acknowledged, alongside its signing of the declaration on AI at Bletchley Park in November, but make no mistake: "China poses a genuine and increasing cyber risk to the UK.".

Xi's cyberspies ten years ago may have just been stealing intellectual property from universities, for example, but the attacks on CNI from multiple groups, not just Volt Typhoon, showed evidence of China trying to set themselves up for destructive attacks in the future.

Couple this with China's 2021 data security law that requires all security vulnerabilities to be handed to Beijing before being disclosed, if at all, and the Middle Kingdom's intentions become much clearer.

Russia is seen as the threat today China is the threat of tomorrow.

China doesn't just want to keep pace with the West, but achieve supremacy in cyberspace and out-innovate it to the extent Western nations can't defend against it.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/16/the_uks_alarm_over_china/