Back in October there was a suspected hack by the Chinese, although this has not been officially confirmed.
Trade minister Sir Chris Bryant told Times Radio on Friday that “there certainly has been a hack” but it is too early in the government’s investigation to confirm other widely reported details.
The Sun claimed that Chinese state-sponsored attackers were behind the intrusion and stole details related to tens of thousands of visa applications. But this also has not been confirmed, I think it is more speculative than fact based.
Trade minister Sir Chris Bryant went on to say “potentially people’s visa applications might have been attacked, but that is somebody speculating.”
Sir Chris said that there has been nothing thrown up by the investigation thus far that suggests any individual would be harmed or compromised.
“There certainly has been a hack, I can say that. I’m not able to say whether it is directly related to Chinese operatives, or indeed the Chinese state.
A government spokesperson simply responded: “We have been working to investigate a cyber incident. We take the security of our systems and data extremely seriously.”
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Sir Chris told Sky News: “We managed to close the hole, as it were, very quickly. There 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.”
Also see: What Makes Your Device Easier To Hack
The incident has been referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Essentially they are telling us there was a hack, but choosing not to confirm the source. It would be prudent to blame the Chinese, but clearly there is a strong suggestion of their involvement anyway.
Whether we will find out the truth remains to be seen.
