Western governments struggle to coordinate response to Chinese hacking

The government revealed the historical hacking attempts on the same day that it pointed the finger at a “Chinese state-affiliated entity” for compromising the Electoral Commission’s systems between 2021 and 2022. The Chinese embassy in London said the UK’s statement was “completely unfounded and constitutes malicious slander”. But the UK did not accuse any of the sanctioned entities of being involved in that breach. The government has “conflated two separate issues in a way that is quite confusing to the general public”, said Jamie MacColl, a research fellow in cybersecurity at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank.