A data center in London used to store sensitive government information was acquired by a Chinese-linked entity, causing the then-Conservative government to consider destroying the facility.
The broad claim made is a wider Bloomberg piece about the alleged Chinese infiltration of the UK’s classified systems.
The data center in question is not named, with Bloomberg claiming that the facility was sold to an entity aligned to China when the Conservatives were in power. Ministers at the time “briefly proposed a plan to destroy the data center before it was made secure in a different way,” Bloomberg reports, citing two former senior security officials and other government officials.
What is meant by ‘destroy’ is not specified, and would be an unusual approach to securing data. The government could alternatively have removed its servers from the facility.
The Spectator also reports that the data center acquisition allowed “Beijing to steal a goldmine of secret information,” with a source calling the sale a “stratospheric fuck-up.”
The claims come amid a broader scandal over China’s influence in the UK, after a trial against two British men accused of spying for China was abruptly dropped.
Bloomberg reports that China routinely accessed low- and medium-level classification information on UK government servers over at least the past decade. Accessed information includes information marked “official-sensitive” and “secret” and some material on the government’s secure IT networks.
Top secret information has not been accessed, Bloomberg said.
Earlier this week, Dominic Cummings, the former Chief Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson told The Times that China had obtained “vast amounts” of classified government information.
Read the orginal article: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/bloomberg-claims-uk-government-considered-destroying-london-data-center-with-chinese-owners-over-spy-concerns/