GCHQ's new director-general has warned that China's irresponsible behavior in cyberspace could make the internet less secure for everyone.
Speaking at CyberUK 2024 in Birmingham, Anne Keast Butler, director of the UK's main intelligence agency GCHQ, said China poses a real and growing cyber risk to the UK. Stated.
He said the UK wanted to work with China on mutually beneficial actions, including tackling climate change, safe trade and AI safety. But while Russia and Iran pose immediate threats, Keast Butler said China is the “defining” challenge of the era.
“China poses a significant risk to international norms and values through its coercive and destabilizing actions,” she said. “In cyberspace, we believe China's irresponsible actions weaken the security of the Internet for everyone.”
NCSC CEO Felicity Oswald also reiterated that the United States, United Kingdom, and allied nations are concerned about the Bolt Typhoon Group's activities that could lay the foundation for a devastating or devastating cyber attack. He pointed out that he was issuing a warning.
Bolt Typhoon is a hacker group linked to the Chinese government that has been found to have compromised older routers and other devices to carry out cyber espionage.
According to a recent advisory issued by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Bolt Typhoon has successfully compromised organizations in a variety of sectors, including communications, energy, transportation systems, and water and wastewater systems.
CISA has confirmed that Bolt Typhoon is actively infiltrating the networks of U.S. critical infrastructure organizations. No such confirmation has been made by the UK government agency.
White House warns about China's cyber capabilities
Also speaking during the CyberUK event, White House National Cyber Director Harry Corker said that hackers in the People's Republic of China (PRC) were working to evade defenses and that they were “attacking us on an unprecedented scale.” We are aiming for the profit of
“The People's Liberation Army has invested significant resources in building cyber programs for one reason: to put civilian critical infrastructure at risk in an era of competition,” he added.
Threats from China are particularly relevant in crisis and conflict scenarios. At such times, China could use its pre-positioned cyber capabilities to wreak havoc on civilian infrastructure and thwart U.S. military action,” Coker said.
Coker added that the China threat is a global problem.
Development of China's Cyber Tradecraft
Specific developments in China's cyber trade include land-based techniques in which threat actors use existing tools and tactics on targeted systems and networks to carry out cyber attacks.
For example, whereas previously the focus was on IP theft, Chinese threat actors are now proactively infiltrating networks.
Chinese threat actors are also targeting existing vulnerabilities such as n-days and zero-days.
Some commenters have commented that this tradecraft change is the result of previous attempts using the technique failing, essentially forcing the attacker to change tack once caught.
