China spied on British govt servers for 10 years, sources say

Classified information routinely accessed; hacking attempts described as endless

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Chinese hackers accessed classified British computer systems for more than a decade, sources familiar with the matter said, as the British government published documents acknowledging that it considered Beijing's spying a threat to the economy and local democratic institutions.

China routinely accessed lowand medium-level classification information on British government servers over at least 10 years, according to two former senior security officials and other government officials familiar with the matter.

That included information marked official-sensitive and secret, as well as some material on the government's secure information technology networks, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss matters of national security.

The data accessed included confidential documents relating to the formulation of government policy, private communications and some diplomatic cables, the sources said.

One described Chinese efforts to access British government systems as endless. Information and intelligence deemed top secret were not believed to have been compromised and are held securely, the sources said, pushing back against a report on Oct 15 in The Times newspaper.

One compromise related to a data centre in London used to store some sensitive government information, which was sold to an entity aligned to China when the Conservatives were in power, flagging major security concerns, one of the sources said, confirming a report in The Spectator.

Ministers in the then government briefly proposed a plan to destroy the data centre before it was made secure in a different way, they added.

A British government spokesman reiterated that the “most sensitive” government information and the systems on which it is stored were not known to have been compromised. The Chinese Embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.