16 May 2024

Britain and US sound alarm over growing Chinese cyber threat

Michael Holden and James Pearson

U.S. and British officials warned on Tuesday of a growing cyber threat from China, with the White House cyber director saying Beijing was capable of causing havoc in cyberspace and a UK spy agency chief warning of an "epoch-defining" challenge.

Anxiety has been increasing in the United States and Europe about alleged Chinese cyber and espionage activity, but Beijing has denied the accusations.

"China poses a genuine and increasing cyber risk to the UK," Anne Keast-Butler, director of Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) eavesdropping agency, told a security conference in the central English city of Birmingham.

She said the response to Beijing's activities was GCHQ's top priority, and that coercive and destabilising actions by China threatened international norms.

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