The personal data of UK military personnel was compromised in a major data breach at the Ministry of Defence. The attack was directed at the MoD’s third-party payroll system, which contains the names and bank account information of both current and former military personnel. It’s also possible that a very tiny number of addresses were accessed. The department acted right away and shut down the contractor-run external network.

According to the BBC and Sky, who broke the story initially, preliminary checks revealed no proof that data had been deleted. According to the Guardian, the defence secretary, Grant Shapps, is scheduled to speak in the afternoon when MPs are addressed on the subject in the Commons on Tuesday.

Ministers will not identify the nation responsible for the hacking, but they will point the finger at unfriendly and malicious forces. As a precaution, impacted military members will be informed and given expert guidance. To find out if their information is being used or if there is an effort to use it, they might contact a personal data protection service.

Although there might be a tiny delay in some situations in the payment of expenditures, all salaries were paid at the most recent payday, and there should be no problems at the next one at the end of this month.

“There are a lot of serious questions for the defence secretary on this, especially from forces personnel whose details were targeted,” stated John Healey, the shadow defence secretary. “Any hostile action of this kind is completely unacceptable.” Since learning of the incident a few days ago, the MoD has been attempting to comprehend its scope and consequences. In an unprecedented combined effort to expose Beijing’s spying, the US and the UK accused China in March of launching a worldwide campaign of “malicious” cyberattacks.

In 2021, Britain accused Beijing of attacking the Electoral Commission watchdog and orchestrating a cyber “reconnaissance” effort against MPs’ and peers’ email accounts. A front firm, Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology firm, and two persons associated with the APT31 hacking group were sanctioned in relation to the Beijing-linked hacks on the Electoral Commission and 43 individuals. Some of the MPs the Chinese government targeted, however, felt that the response fell short and urged the government to take a more aggressive posture against China by calling it a “threat” to national security rather than a “epoch-defining challenge.”

“This is 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,” Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, said on Sky News, echoing earlier calls. “Stop acting phoney. It is a malevolent player that collaborates with Iran and North Korea to form a new axis of authoritarian governments while providing financial and military support to Russia.

“The defence secretary will make a planned statement to the House of Commons this afternoon setting out the multi-point plan to support and protect personnel,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement released Tuesday morning.

According to a Chinese foreign ministry official, Beijing rejects utilising the subject for political purposes to disparage other nations and opposes and combats all types of cyberattacks.