US EditionChinese hackers targeted top UK officials: Report
Chinese state-linked group Salt Typhoon targeted phones of senior aides to three UK prime ministers, compromising communications and metadata from 2021 to 2024, reports say.
- The Daily Telegraph reported the operation ran from 2021 to 2024, targeting mobile phones of senior Downing Street officials and aides to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
- China has sought political intelligence on MPs and decision-makers in British politics, and UK security sources say it has targeted Britain’s telecommunications systems more broadly while downplaying success claims.
- Reports note earlier incidents, including a 2022 hack of Liz Truss’s phone, while Boris Johnson was warned to stop using his private mobile and technical experts recovered WhatsApp messages, with agents suspected of working for Russia initially blamed.
- Senior former government figures said they did not recognise the Telegraph’s account and MI5 would have known of any surveillance, while UK security services' investigations found no evidence the operation succeeded.
- Critics say the hacking claims demand a rethink of China policy, with Alicia Kearns and MPs urging a tougher stance and warning phones should be assumed targetable.
37 Articles
37 Articles
China Hacked UK Officials’ Phones—Just as London Courts Beijing
State-sponsored Chinese hackers have been quietly breaking into the phones of senior British government officials for years—including close aides to recent prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak. The Daily Telegraph reports that spies have “compromised senior members of the government, exposing their private communications to Beijing.” It could not come at a worse time for the Labour government, which just last week approved B…
Hackers supported by the Chinese State will have compromised communications from high officials of the United Kingdom, as advanced by The Telegraph. The attack raises the possibility of spies have read text messages, heard calls...
Computer pirates sponsored by Beijing would have tapped the phones of some of the closest advisors to former prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak between 2021 and 2024 Read
For years Chinese hackers would have spyed on Downing Street phones, hitting collaborators of Prime Minister Johnson, Truss and Sunak. The attack, discovered in 2024, rekindles the security alarm in relations with Beijing
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