The proposed UK Cyber Security and Resilience Bill updates national cybersecurity policy as the UK fights other cyber threats, like espionage on LinkedIn.
On November 12, 2025, the United Kingdom introduced their Cyber Security and Resilience Bill to Parliament for the first reading by the House of Commons. The Bill had been in the works for a while, with its development first being announced in the 2024 King’s Speech, and the first details being shared in April 2025. The reason for the Bill stretches even further past the original announcement, with the collections site for the proposed law sharing this context: “Our digital economy is increasingly being attacked by cyber criminals and state actors, affecting essential public services and infrastructure. In the last 18 months, our hospitals, universities, local authorities, democratic institutions and government departments have been targeted in cyber attacks…The Bill will strengthen the UK’s cyber defences and ensure critical infrastructure and the digital services companies rely on are secure.”
It’s true that the UK has been battling a high frequency of cyberattacks for a while. The 2025 cyber security breaches survey found that “over four in ten businesses (43%) and three in ten charities (30%) reported having experienced any kind of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months.” While these rates are lower than last year’s, these attacks have still been extremely impactful. One disastrous data breach in the Ministry of Defense forced the relocation of 4,500 Afghan people to the UK. The ransomware attacks on UK retailers, targeting industry giants Marks & Spencer, the Co-op group, and Harrods resulted in nearly 700 million pounds ($930 million) lost in stock market value. Threat actors blocked critical payment systems and warned they would release the personal information of 20 million customers if their demands were not meant. Attacks like this and others on healthcare systems have culminated in a ransomware payment ban for businesses and organizations in the public sector or critical infrastructure.
The UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is meant to serve as a critical update to the countries cyber security legislation, which has been outpaced since their separation from the European Union (which has continued to strengthen its cybersecurity policy, developing a Cyber Crisis Proposal, a Cyber Resilience Act, and an Artificial Intelligence Act, along with other legislation in the past few years). Some of the key updates in the proposed Bill include:
The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill looks like a step in the right direction for the UK. The Bill will likely take a while to be ratified, but the UK is still bolstering its cybersecurity in the meantime. Just this past week, The UK’s Security Service MI5 sounded the alarm about an espionage attempt by Chinese intelligence over LinkedIn. Two LinkedIn accounts, acting as recruiters with the names Amanda Qiu, from BP-YR Executive Search, and Shirly Shen, from InternshipUnion, used the site to "conduct outreach at scale”.
This outreach may not be the first attempt at spying by Chinese agents. The chief legal counsel at the Free Speech Union, Bryn Harris, told the Guardian he received emails from three accounts (with the names of Lala Chen, Ailin Chen, and Emily Emily) that solicited information on academic freedom following a controversy about a college course involving China, offered a job “as a full-time technical advisor” for Google’s AI division, and asked to talk more over Whatsapp. Each profile claimed to be based in America, but an assessment found that the senders were in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the press release published on November 18, 2025, the UK explained that these accounts were likely being used by Chinese intelligence officers looking to connect with people who had sensitive information about the country. Dan Jarvis, the Security Minister, said he would work to create a new Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan to ‘disrupt and deter spying from states like China.’ In Parliament, Jarvis described the effort as “a covert and calculated attempt by China to interfere with our Sovereign affairs.” China has denied any wrongdoing, with Mao Ning, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson saying “China never interferes in other countries’ internal affairs and has no interest in collecting so-called intelligence from the UK parliament.”
To prevent a similar incident from happening again, the UK government is talking with Linkedin to see how espionage activity can be limited. The press release also described new grants in national cybersecurity: “£170 million will be invested in renewing the sovereign and encrypted technology that civil servants use to safeguard sensitive work. A further £130 million will be invested on projects such as building Counter Terrorism Policing’s ability to enforce the National Security Act, and fund the National Cyber Security Centre’s and National Protective Security Authority’s work with critical businesses to protect their intellectual property.” Hopefully, these changes will start to fortify UK cybersecurity posture as the new Bill starts the ratification process.