Armed forces personnel bank data compromised in Ministry of Defence hack

6 May 2024, 23:14

MoD
Government building stock. Picture: PA

Initial investigations have not shown any data was taken, but affected personnel will be alerted and provided with support.

The Ministry of Defence has been the target of a large-scale data breach, it is understood.

Sky News reported that China was behind the cyber attack.

A third-party payroll system has been hacked, potentially compromising the bank details of all serving armed forces personnel and some veterans. A very small number of addresses may also have been accessed.

The department took immediate action when it discovered the breach, taking the external network – operated by a contractor – offline.

It is understood that initial investigations have found no evidence that data has been removed.

But affected service personnel will be alerted as a precaution and provided with specialist advice. They will be able to use a personal data protection service to check whether their information is being used or an attempt is being made to use it.

All salaries were paid at the last payday, with no issues expected at the next one at the end of this month, although there may be a slight delay in the payment of expenses in a small number of cases.

The Government will inform MPs of the breach when Parliament returns on Tuesday, with Defence Secretary Grant Shapps expected to make a Commons statement in the afternoon.

Ministers will blame hostile and malign actors, but will not name the country behind the hacking.

The MoD has been working at speed to uncover the scale of the attack since it was discovered several days ago.

Dowden
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden in March formally blamed Beijing for an attack on the Electoral Commission which exposed the personal data of 40 million voters (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The revelation comes after the UK and the United States in March accused China of a global campaign of “malicious” cyber attacks in an unprecedented joint operation to reveal Beijing’s espionage.

Britain blamed Beijing for targeting the Electoral Commission watchdog in 2021 and for being behind a campaign of online “reconnaissance” aimed at the email accounts of MPs and peers.

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.

“Any such hostile action is utterly unacceptable. Parliament will expect a full Commons statement tomorrow.”

In response to the Beijing-linked hacks on the Electoral Commission and 43 individuals, a front company, Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company, and two people linked to the APT31 hacking group were sanctioned.

But some of the MPs targeted by the Chinese state said the response did not go far enough, urging the Government to toughen its stance on China by labelling it a “threat” to national security rather than an “epoch-defining challenge”.

Conservative former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith repeated those calls, telling Sky News: “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.”

The Metropolitan Police said it is not involved in any investigation at this stage.

By Press Association

More Technology News

See more More Technology News

A Barclays sign outside a branch

Barclays to hand share award to staff after yearly profit surges by a quarter

A bin of seized knives. A new AI tool from the University of Surrey has been unveiled which could help police forces more quickly identify and trace knives.

New AI tool to identify knives could ‘transform’ policing of knife crime

Former executive chairman of Google Eric Schmidt

Former Google boss warns of ‘extreme risk’ from terrorists posed by AI

A laptop displaying a ‘Matrix’-style screensaver

MPs: Ministers must give protections to creative sector amid AI copyright fears

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the audience in a closing speech at the Grand Palais during the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris

Refusal to sign AI declaration was ‘based on what’s best for British people’

Someone at a computer keyboard

Airbnb issues warning over holiday scams fuelled by AI and social media

An HSBC branch

HSBC online and mobile banking working again after service outage

HSBC on growth across the UK

HSBC hit by outage as users complain of being unable to log on

The summit in Paris (Michel Euler/AP)

UK did not sign AI communique over ‘opportunity and security’ concerns – No 10

Sky Glass Gen 2

Sky unveils second generation Sky Glass TV promising ‘better picture and sound’

Technology Stock

UK announces sanctions against Russian cyber crime network

Participants in the AI Action Summit pose for a group photo at the Grand Palais in Paris

UK appears not to have signed leaders’ declaration at AI summit

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Sam Altman reiterates OpenAI ‘not for sale’ after Elon Musk-led bid

A young girl uses the TikTok app on a smartphone.

Data of dead British children may have been deleted, TikTok boss says

Elon Musk

Elon Musk offers $97bn to buy ChatGPT-maker OpenAI

Alesha Dixon (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Alesha Dixon working ‘super hard’ to stop children having phones