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A UK government minister on Friday said an investigation was underway after a data hack hit Britain’s Foreign Office in October.
“I can confirm that there was a hack related to the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office),” Trade Minister Chris Bryant said, playing down a report suggesting Chinese hackers had been involved.
The data hack follows July’s revelation that a Ministry of Defence official accidentally leaked a document containing the names and details of almost 19,000 Afghans who had asked to be relocated to the UK. The details of more than 100 Britons, including spies and special forces personnel, were also released.
Bryant said the latest incident was “fairly low risk”.
“We’ve been investigating since October, since this happened, and we closed down the problem,” Bryant told BBC radio.
The Sun daily said it understood a cyber gang named Storm-1849, accused of targeting critics of Beijing, was behind the Foreign Office hack. Asked if he could rule out Chinese involvement, Bryant said he did not know.
A government spokesperson added, “We have been working to investigate a cyber incident. We take the security of our systems and data extremely seriously.”
Cyber gangs have previously targeted UK hospitals, the postal service, luxury brands and retailers.
