The Chinese state has hacked the Ministry of Defense, according to Sky News.
MPs will be informed on Tuesday of a massive data breach involving the Department of Defensetargeting service personnel.
The government will not name the country involved, but Sky News understands this is the case. China.
The Chinese state is accused of two or three attempts to hack employees of the Ministry of Defense, including personnel.
The cyberattack targeted a payroll system involving current military personnel and some veterans. These are largely names and bank details that have been revealed.
All salaries will be paid this month.
The Ministry of Defense hopes that serving personnel will not worry about their safety. They will benefit from advice and support tomorrow
The contractor’s system is not connected to the Department of Defense’s main IT systems and has been taken down and a review initiated.
The Ministry of Defense has worked hard over the past 72 hours to understand the scale of the hack, following its discovery in recent days.
It is understood that investigations have so far shown no data having been collected.
This could raise questions about whether other countries with difficult relations with China will want to share sensitive intelligence with the UK.
It comes less than two months after the Chinese government blamed “state-affiliated actors” for two “malicious” cyberattack campaigns in the UK.
Delivering a speech in the House of Commons, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden revealed the two incidents involved an attack on the Electoral Commission – responsible for overseeing elections and political financing – in 2021, and targeted attacks on MPs skeptical of China.
Luke de Pulford, chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), said the revelation should be a “watershed”.
IPAC represents parliamentarians from democracies around the world, including Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Labor Party Azfal Khan.
Mr de Pulford said: “This must represent a turning point.
“These are actions suited to hybrid warfare, not the ‘mutual respect’ that Beijing and London regularly boast about.
“Xi Jinping’s China is not a friend.
“Take off the blinders. Our China strategy has failed. We need some realism quickly.”
Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, is currently on tour in Europe – although he is not expected to travel to the UK.
He spent the day in Paris and will travel to the Pyrenees tomorrow with French President Emmanuel Macron.
He will then travel to Serbia on Wednesday and Hungary on Thursday, two countries that have friendly relations with Beijing.
Sky news