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China poses a “genuine and increasing cyber risk to the UK”, the head of Britain’s signals intelligence agency has said.
The remarks by Anne Keast-Butler, director of GCHQ, follow a slew of alleged China-related espionage activity in the UK, including a suspected cyber attack that targeted the records of thousands of British military personnel.
Keast-Butler told a security conference in Birmingham on Tuesday that while the cyber threats from Russia and Iran were “globally pervasive” and “aggressive” respectively, China was her agency’s top priority.
“China poses a genuine and increasing cyber risk to the UK,” she said, calling the country “the epoch-defining challenge” in a direct echo of the British government last year.
“In cyber space, we believe that the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] irresponsible actions weaken the…