It was announced that The Ministry of Defense saw the personal information of an unknown number of serving UK military personnel breached.
According to international agencies, the attack targeted a payroll system used by the Ministry of Defense, which includes names and bank details of current and former members of the armed forces.
According to BBC information, It is unknown who is behind the hack or what the data may be used for.
The data, described as “HMRC-style personal information”, relates to current and former members of the Royal Navy, Army and Air Force over a period of several years.
However, Sky News understands that the data breach would come from China. For context, the Chinese state has been accused of two or three attempts to hack Ministry of Defense employees, including staff.
The cyberattack was on a payroll system with current service personnel and some veterans. It is largely names and bank details that have been exposed managed by a contractor.
According to testimony on Sky News, Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative MP and former soldier, told China “was probably looking at the financially vulnerable with the idea that they could be coerced in exchange for cash.”
The contractor’s system is not connected to the main IT systems of the Ministry of Defense and has been removed after a review was initiated.
The Ministry of Defense has been working at high speed over the past 72 hours to understand the scale of the hack after it was discovered in recent days.
It is understood that investigations so far have not shown that any data was taken.
The system was managed by an external contractor and no operational data has been obtained from the Ministry of Defence.
It is understood that the Ministry of Defense has taken immediate action and the system has been taken offline, while investigations are carried out.
For now, the Ministry of Defense is in the process of notifying and providing support and advice to those affected, including informing veterans organizations about what happened.
Defense Secretary Grant Shapps is expected to brief MPs on the hack in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
It is expected to set out a “multi-point plan” in response, which will include actions to protect affected servicemen and women.
Although it has not been officially revealed who is behind this attackcomes amid growing warnings about cyber security threats facing the UK from hostile states and third parties.
This could raise questions about whether other countries with difficult relations with China will want to share sensitive intelligence with the UK.
This comes less than two months after the government blamed “state-affiliated actors” in China. of two “malicious” cyberattack campaigns in the United Kingdom.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden revealed that the two incidents involved an attack on the Electoral Commission – responsible for overseeing elections and political funding – in 2021, and targeted attacks on anti-China skeptical MPs.
Curiously, Xi Jinping, president of China, is currently touring Europe, although he does not plan to visit the United Kingdom.
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