Foreign Office data has been compromised by hackers, a minister has confirmed to Sky News, but he said the government is “fairly confident” that no individual data has been accessed.

Trade minister Sir Chris Bryant told Sky’s Mornings with Jones and Melbourne that the government first became aware of the hack in October, and was now “on top of it”.

Sky News understands that the data stolen was on systems operated on the Home Office’s behalf by the Foreign Office, which detected the breach.

The Sun reported last night that a Chinese groups of hackers known as Storm 1949 targeted Foreign Office servers and had accessed information relating to visa details, with “thousands” of confidential documents and data stolen.

But the minister told Sky News that it is “not entirely clear” who is responsible for the hack, and he could share “remarkably little detail”.

The Conservatives are accusing ministers of failing to protect the UK from Chinese interference.

Sir Chris said: “There certainly has been a hack at the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office], and we’ve been aware of that since October.”

Pointing to high-profile hacks this year of Marks and Spencer, Jaguar Land Rover, and the British Library, the minister added: “All of these are really important things for us to tackle and be aware of and prevent wherever possible.

“Some of the reporting has, I think, been a bit more speculation than accurate.”

He said he could share “remarkably little” in the way of facts about the hack because “quite often the investigation takes quite a long time”.

“We managed to close the hole, as it were, very quickly,” Sir Chris said.

“It was a technical issue in one of our sites, I gather. And we’re fairly confident that there’s a low risk of any individual actually being affected by this.

“I know that some of the reports have said, potentially, various things could happen. I think that that’s a bit more speculation than is helpful. So I don’t want to scaremonger about this. We are on top of it.

“And also it’s not entirely clear where this has come from. I know everybody’s speculating about that as well. That is not entirely clear either.”

Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel shared a report that said the hack was Chinese and wrote on X: “China undermines our security, institutions and democracy but Labour is failing to protect Britain from China’s foreign interference in our country.

“[Sir Keir] Starmer kowtows to China at every opportunity and cannot be trusted to protect our national interest.”

It is too late to investigate whether Nigel Farage broke election law on spending at the general election, Essex Police has said.

The Reform UK leader had been referred to the police following claims by a former member of his campaign team that the campaign to get Mr Farage elected in Clacton last year overspent.

There are tight rules on campaign spending in the UK, including separating what is spent as part of a national campaign and what is spent directly in a constituency.

However, there is a one-year statutory time limit to begin any investigation, which Essex Police said has now elapsed.

The force said: “We have assessed a report relating to an allegation around misreported expenditure by a political candidate in connection with the general election in July 2024.

“Having regard to the Representation of the People Act 1983, which states any prosecution for such an offence must commence within one year, it has been concluded that this report falls outside of the stated statutory time limit, and no investigation can take place.”

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Last week: Reform denies Farage broke law

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The allegations of overspending on Mr Farage’s campaign were first reported at the start of last week, with Richard Everett – also a former Reform councillor – claiming he had passed information to the Metropolitan Police.

Reform was quick to deny the allegations, and accused Mr Everett of being a “disgruntled former councillor” who was expelled from the party “several months ago”.

The overspending reportedly included failing to declare spending on leaflets, banners, utility bills and the refurbishment of a bar in its Clacton campaign office – although Mr Everett said Mr Farage was “blissfully unaware” as others managed the finances.

Labour Party chair Anna Turley had also written to the Electoral Commission about the claims.

Responding yesterday, the elections watchdog said: “We have responded to Anna Turley MP’s correspondence, which raised questions about Reform UK’s spending at the 2024 general election.

“After carefully considering the information presented in the letter, we did not identify any expenditure relating to Mr Farage’s election campaign in Clacton that should have been declared in Reform UK’s national expenditure.”

Bitcoin may have ended its historical four-year cycle, signaling an incoming year of downside, despite widespread analyst expectations for an extended cycle driven by regulatory tailwinds.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) $125,000 all-time high on Oct. 6 may have signaled the top of the current four-year Bitcoin halving cycle, both in terms of “price and time,” according to Jurrien Timmer, the director of global macroeconomic research at asset management firm Fidelity.

“While I remain a secular bull on Bitcoin, my concern is that Bitcoin may well have ended another 4-year cycle halving phase,” wrote Timmer in a Thursday X post. “Bitcoin winters have lasted about a year, so my sense is that 2026 could be a “year off” (or “off year”) for Bitcoin. Support is at $65-75k.”

Related: Bitcoin treasuries stall in Q4, but largest holders keep stacking sats

Crypto market may see more upside on fundamental, regulatory tailwinds

Timmer’s analysis contradicts other crypto analysts, who expect the growing number of regulated crypto investment products to lead to an extended bull market cycle in 2026.

Notably, Tom Shaughnessy, the co-founder of crypto research firm Delphi Digital, expects new all-time highs for Bitcoin in 2026, after investor sentiment recovers from the record $19 billion crypto market crash that occurred at the beginning of October.

“We are working through a one-time disastrous 10/10 liquidation event that broke the market,” wrote Shaughnessy in a Friday X post, adding:

“Once that’s worked through, we hit $BTC ATHs in 2026 as prices rubber band to reflect the progress outside 10/10.”

Shaughnessy said crypto market valuations will be driven by the industry’s “fundamental progress,” including growing Wall Street implementations and regulatory developments.

Related: Bitcoiners push for quantum-resistant BIP-360 upgrade as debate heats up

Policy experts are also predicting a significant year of progress on US cryptocurrency legislation, a development that may bring more institutional investment to the crypto space.

“I do expect 2026 to be another meaningful year for crypto regulation, but it will look different from the last one,” Cathy Yoon, general counsel at crypto research firm Temporal and Solana block-building system Harmonic, told Cointelegraph.

“With stablecoin legislation now passed, the real impact will come from implementation – examinations, disclosures, and how these assets integrate into payments and financial infrastructure,” she said.

However, investors’ social sentiment took a significant hit earlier this week as Bitcoin dipped below $85,000. Bearish commentary has since dominated social media platforms, including X, Reddit and Telegram, according to market intelligence platform Santiment.

Meanwhile, the crypto industry’s best-performing traders by returns, who are tracked as “smart money” traders on Nansen’s blockchain intelligence platform, are also betting on a short-term decline for most leading cryptocurrencies.

While smart money traders were net short on Bitcoin for $123 million, the same cohort was betting on Ether’s (ETH) price increase, with $475 million worth of cumulative net long positions, Nansen data shows.

Magazine: Sharplink exec shocked by level of BTC and ETH ETF hodling — Joseph Chalom