Government races to prevent China from hacking in to British DNA data
The Government is moving to protect British DNA data from Chinese hacking attempts amid warnings that they pose a risk to national security, a leaked letter suggests.
The correspondence appears to confirm that the UK had concerns about a Chinese company, BGI Group, following accusations that it launched multiple hack attempts against Genomics England. The claims were later retracted.
The Cabinet Office minister John Glen, who supports the Deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden, on national resilience, wrote in the letter that “significant work related to national security” was being undertaken to “minimise the risks” highlighted by an MP who raised concerns about BGI Group, which was reportedly handed an £11m NHS Covid testing contract in 2021.
MPs said they feared that Chinese hacking, including alleged attempts by BGI, would allow Beijing to analyse and predict which diseases may affect the British population. This would allow Beijing to seize exclusive rights to patents and technology that could give it leverage over the UK by creating a dependency in health.
Some also warned that China could develop diseases that would particularly affect the British population owing to its genetic make-up.
Mr Glen’s letter, written in reply to the Conservative MP Henry Smith, appears to reveal for the first time that the Government had national security concerns about BGI and wider China hacking of health data, following confusion sown last year after a minister retracted comments about the company.
The then-science minister, George
Freeman, told MPs last year that, every week “Genomics England was receiving several hack attacks from BGI, and that was a wake-up call for all of us”. Government sources later backtracked on the claims and insisted: “There is no evidence of attempted hacking of Genomics England in 2014 from BGI.”
Mr Freeman issued a correction to Hansard, the official parliamentary record, reasserting that there was no evidence that BGI attempted to hack Genomics England.
The Cabinet has been grappling with how to protect British health data for years, in line with a doctrine of being as “open as possible, as secure as necessary”.
On Wednesday, Mr Dowden said the UK had decided not to designate genomics as critical national infrastructure after a review of the issue concluded that the current system provided sufficient controls.
BGI Group said: “The allegations against BGI are not based on facts or evidence, BGI is disappointed that misinformation continues to be circulated. BGI Group has never been, and will never be, involved in ‘hack attacks’ against anyone. We will continue to support the UK in improving the health of the people.”