Data of 270,000 service personnel ‘exposed in Chinese MoD hack’

Around 270,000 service personnel may have been hit by China’s hack on the Ministry of Defence, it has emerged.

The hackers gained access to payroll information including names, bank details and some addresses of serving personnel, reservists and veterans in the data breach.

The Telegraph understands that a personal data protection service has been made available to all service personnel.

Those affected have been referred to a government website providing advice and support, including how to use data monitoring services to track personal data across the web.

Both serving and retired personnel have also been advised that, if they do see their data online, they need to report it immediately via a helpline and not engage with the website owner.

On Tuesday, Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, will make a statement to the Commons about the hack, which Beijing has denied.

Asked about the reports, China’s ministry of foreign affairs said it opposed all forms of cyber attacks and was against “the use of cybersecurity issues to smear other countries for political purposes deliberately”.

Attack thought to have happened recently

An investigation has been launched into how such sensitive information could have been accessed.

The cyber attack is thought to have been on a payroll system operated by a contractor external to the MoD. The system – the main mechanism for administering pay and expenses for service personnel – is separate from the wider MoD infrastructure. It was immediately taken offline.

It is not known whether the contractor is responsible for any other part of the MoD infrastructure or whether the company was targeted specifically because of a known vulnerability in its systems.

The attack, thought to have taken place in recent days, would not have been able to access any personal details of special forces personnel because they are administered through a separate system. However, some veterans who have left the Armed Forces in recent years may have been affected.

Tobias Ellwood, a former chairman of the defence select committee, urged the Government not to “understate the severity of this hack”.

He said it had been conducted “most likely to secure the banking details of personnel who might be leant upon in return for financial gain – perhaps even unaware China sits behind this”.

He added: “Whilst the MoD has robust resilience firewalls in place, it’s clearly not the case with third party contractors, which I am sure will now be addressed by the Defence Secretary.”