Britain’s defense ministry has been the target of a large-scale cyberattack involving the names and banking details of members of the armed forces, a government minister confirmed on Tuesday.
Former minister Tobias Ellwood said a third-party payroll system used by the defense ministry had been targeted and bore the hallmarks of a Chinese cyberattack.
“Targeting the names of the payroll system and service personnel’s bank details, this does point to China because it can be as part of a plan, a strategy to see who might be coerced,” the ex-soldier and former chairman of a parliamentary defense committee, told BBC radio.
The data breach is believed to have also included in some cases personal addresses of serving and former armed forces members.
Stride told Sky News television, which first reported the breach, that the defense ministry had acted “very swiftly” to take the database off line.
But the government was not currently pointing the finger at Beijing, he said.
The data breach comes after the UK government in March accused China of targeting the Electoral Commission watchdog and the email accounts of lawmakers.
The Electoral Commission attack was identified in October 2022, but the hackers had first been able to access the commission’s systems for more than a year.
China hit back, saying the claims were “malicious slander.”
Last month two British men, including a former UK parliamentary researcher, appeared in court in London accused of spying for China.
Defense Secretary Grant Shapps will give further details of the Ministry of Defense data breach to parliament later on Tuesday.
With AFP
