The UK government has confirmed a cyber-attack on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in October, with ministers saying the risk to individuals is low while declining to attribute the breach to any specific actor.
“There certainly has been a hack,” said trade department minister Chris Bryant, speaking to Times Radio. “I’m not able to say whether it is directly related to Chinese operatives, or indeed, the Chinese state.” He added: “We are very confident that in the investigation that we’ve done so far, that nobody, no individual, will have been harmed or compromised by what has happened.”
Details first surfaced in a report by The Sun, which said a China-linked group known as Storm 1849 was responsible and claimed the breach could include tens of thousands of visa details.
Bryant cautioned against drawing conclusions at this stage. “Some of the reporting has, I think, been a bit more speculation than accurate,” he told Sky News. “We managed to close the hole, as it were, very quickly. It was a technical issue in one of our sites, I gather, and we’re fairly confident that there’s a low risk of any individual actually being affected by this.”
A government spokesperson confirmed the ongoing probe. “We have been working to investigate a cyber incident. We take the security of our systems and data extremely seriously,” the spokesperson said.
The Independent reported ministers are “pretty confident” visa applicants’ details were not compromised, with Bryant stressing that officials have been examining the incident since October and that such investigations take time. “Quite often the investigation takes quite a long time to get down to that,” he said, referencing recent cyber incidents at Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer and the British Library.
The attribution question remains open. Asked whether China was behind the attack, Bryant said: “That’s not entirely clear.” The Sun described Storm 1849 as part of a state-aligned hacking apparatus accused of targeting politicians and groups critical of the Chinese government.
Earlier this month, prime minister Keir Starmer characterised China as posing “national security threats” to Britain while defending engagement with Beijing, with a visit to the Chinese capital expected in late January. Officials said the government continues to monitor and harden systems as the investigation progresses.
