GCHQ and NCSC leaders warn of increasing cyber risk from China

Posted to News on Wednesday, May 29, 2024 Share:

THE DIRECTOR of GCHQ has warned that the Chinese state poses a “genuine and increasing” cyber risk for the UK. Speaking at the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) flagship event CYBERUK, held in Birmingham, Anne Keast-Butler stated that the Chinese Communist Party’s cyber capabilities are “world-class” and that it “intends to use them” to achieve its national goals.

In her first major speech since taking up her post last year, Keast-Butler (GCHQ’s first female leader) went on to observe that responding to the challenge posed by China is GCHQ’s top priority, with more resource devoted to the topic than any other single mission.

“We see the Chinese state acting in an increasingly assertive fashion on the world stage,” said Keast-Butler. “The UK’s intelligence community is working alongside our allies and in partnership with our industry and academic colleagues to combat and deter cyber threats from nation states and hostile actors.”

Highlighting the challenge

At CYBERUK 2024, which ran from 13-15 May, Felicity Oswald (CEO of the NCSC) highlighted that the challenge posed by China is “clear and pronounced” and that the Chinese Government’s capability is “vast in scale and sophistication”.

Oswald referenced US warnings about the VOLT TYPHOON Group earlier this year, saying: “What [this] signals about China’s intent – to hold essential networks at risk – is of serious concern for the NCSC.”

Oswald also urged service providers here in the UK to take very seriously the warnings about China state-sponsored attackers prepositioning themselves on critical networks.

“Cyber is being deployed across multiple fronts to help the Chinese state meet its strategic ends,” urged Oswald. “This should worry all of us who are concerned with cyber resilience. Business leaders and networks defenders must take action to make critical systems more secure across our economy. China is certainly not treating security as an ‘extra’ and neither should we.”

‘Future Tech, Future Threat, Future Ready’

The two-day CYBERUK event brought together leading figures in tech and cyber security from around the world, with the theme of this year’s conference being ‘Future Tech, Future Threat, Future Ready’.

A global panel of cyber security experts shared their insights into opportunities and threats that demand our collective attention – nation state threats, Artificial Intelligence, quantum computing, cyber skills and threats posed to Critical National Infrastructure.

*Further detail concerning CYBERUK 2024 is available online