MoD hack: personal information of armed forces personnel compromised in hack reportedly conducted by China

The personal and banking details of armed forces personnel have been compromised after the Ministry of Defence’s third-party payroll systems were hacked.

Information of some serving and veteran armed forces members may have been compromised, with a small number of addresses also possibly accessed. The MoD took immediate action when the hack was identified, by taking the external network offline, stating: “We take cybersecurity extremely seriously. Our intelligence services do, our military does as well.” The government has not yet named where the source of the hack came from, but Sky News reports that China may be behind the attack. Defence Secretary Grant Shapps is due to update MPs on the cyber attack this afternoon, while cabinet minister Mel Stride told Sky News that the theory that China was behind the attack was “an assumption” the government was working with.

Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey said: “So many serious questions for the Defence Secretary on this, especially from Forces personnel whose details were targeted.”

Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “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.” Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative leader, branded China a “malign actor” and urged action to be taken against the country, after previous hacks were attributed to China including one affecting the Electoral Commission in 2021. He said: “This is yet another example of why the UK Government must admit that China poses a systemic threat to the UK and change the integrated review to reflect that. No more pretence, it is a malign actor, supporting Russia with money and military equipment, working with Iran and North Korea in a new axis of totalitarian states.”