{"id":497577,"date":"2025-10-14T01:39:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T01:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/497577\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T01:39:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T01:39:21","slug":"china-represents-a-highly-sophisticated-and-capable-threat-britains-cyber-security-to-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/497577\/","title":{"rendered":"China represents a ‘highly sophisticated and capable threat’, Britain’s cyber security to warn"},"content":{"rendered":"

By REBECCA CAMBER, CRIME AND SECURITY EDITOR<\/a> and JADA BAS, TRAINEE REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 20:52 EDT, 13 October 2025 | Updated: 21:10 EDT, 13 October 2025 <\/p>\n

China<\/a> represents a ‘highly sophisticated and capable threat’, Britain’s cyber security chief will warn today.<\/p>\n

Richard Horne, head of GCHQ<\/a>‘s National Cyber Security Centre, will set out in an annual review the ‘significant threat’ Britain faces from hostile states, with some tech firms in China conducting a ‘malicious global cyber campaign targeting critical networks’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The report reveals a 50 per cent increase in ‘significant’ cyber attacks in the UK in the last year<\/a>, on the government, economy, essential services and the population.<\/p>\n

Mr Horne will say:\u00a0‘We know that our adversaries are combining cyber means with physical methods in order to further their aims.<\/p>\n

‘Just last month, agencies from 13 nations came together to warn that three technology companies based in China have conducted a malicious global cyber campaign targeting critical networks<\/a> on behalf of their host nation.’<\/p>\n

The NCSC recorded a 50 per cent increase in ‘highly significant’ incidents in the year to the end of August.<\/p>\n

The UK is targeted by hostile states \u2013 either directly or through groups operating at arms-length from the authorities in Beijing<\/a>, Moscow<\/a>, Tehran and Pyongyang.<\/p>\n

The NCSC’s annual review said: ‘State actors continue to present a significant threat to UK and global cyber security, aided by an evolving cyber intrusion sector.<\/p>\n

\"Richard <\/p>\n

Richard Horne, head of GCHQ ‘s National Cyber Security Centre, will set out in an annual review the ‘significant threat’ Britain faces from hostile states<\/p>\n

\"It <\/p>\n

It comes after attacks on household names including Marks and Spencer, Co-op and Jaguar Land Rover have shown the real world impact of cyberattacks<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The UK is targeted by hostile states \u2013 either directly or through groups operating at arms-length from the authorities in Beijing , Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang (file image)<\/p>\n

‘As threats intensified, our incident management team faced a record number of nationally significant incidents.’<\/p>\n

The review warns: ‘China continues to be a highly sophisticated and capable threat actor.’<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Russia is a ‘capable and irresponsible threat actor in cyberspace’<\/a>, while pro-Moscow ‘hacktivist’ groups operating outside formal state control are seeking to target the UK, Europe, US, and other Nato countries in retaliation for Western support for Ukraine and Israel.<\/p>\n

Iran’s activity has largely been focused in the Middle East but the NCSC assesses it is ‘highly likely’<\/a> that UK entities could be potential targets for hackers.<\/p>\n

North Korea’s ‘prolific and capable’ hacking activity mainly seeks to raise revenue, to collect intelligence and to offset the impact of international sanctions<\/a>, while undercover IT workers from Kim Jong Un’s country are ‘almost certainly’ targeting UK firms by posing as third-country freelance staff.<\/p>\n

The NCSC’s report comes with the risk posed by China to the UK under intense political scrutiny following the collapse of an alleged spying case and with a ruling due on Beijing’s application to build a massive new embassy in the heart of London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NCSC report warned that hackers \u2013 including those with links to Beijing \u2013 were using AI to improve the potency of their attacks.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile bosses of the UK’s leading companies have been urged to take action to protect themselves from cyber attacks as the number of major incidents hit a record level<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes after attacks on household names including Marks and Spencer, Co-op and Jaguar Land Rover have shown the real world impact of cyberattacks, the NCSC said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Horne said: ‘Cyber security is now a matter of business survival and national resilience.<\/p>\n

‘With over half the incidents handled by the NCSC deemed to be nationally significant, and a 50% rise in highly significant attacks on last year, our collective exposure to serious impacts is growing at an alarming pace.<\/p>\n

‘The best way to defend against these attacks is for organisations to make themselves as hard a target as possible.<\/p>\n

‘That demands urgency from every business leader: hesitation is a vulnerability, and the future of their business depends on the action they take today. The time to act is now.’<\/p>\n

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\n China represents a ‘highly sophisticated and capable threat’, Britain’s cyber security to warn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By REBECCA CAMBER, CRIME AND SECURITY EDITOR and JADA BAS, TRAINEE REPORTER Published: 20:52 EDT, 13 October 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[3801,748,1395,92,393,3203,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-497577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-beijing","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-china","13":"tag-dailymail","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-gchq","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115369972358139505","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}