UK says defense ministry targeted in cyberattack

LONDON

Britain's defense ministry has been the target of a large-scale cyberattack involving the names and banking details of members of the armed forces, a government minister confirmed on Tuesday.

Work and pensions minister Mel Stride said the attack was on a system run by an outside firm but was still a "very significant matter".

Former minister Tobias Ellwood said a third-party payroll system used by the defense ministry had been targeted and bore the hallmarks of a Chinese cyberattack.

"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,", the ex-soldier and former chairman of a parliamentary defense committee, told BBC radio.

The data breach is believed to have also included in some cases personal addresses of serving and former armed forces members.

Stride told Sky News television, which first reported the breach, that the defense ministry had acted "very swiftly" to take the database off line.

But the government was not currently pointing the finger at Beijing, he said.

"That is an assumption.... we are not saying that at this precise moment," he added.

The data breach comes after the U.K. government in March accused China of targeting the Electoral Commission watchdog and the email accounts of lawmakers.

The Electoral Commission attack was identified in October 2022, but the hackers had first been able to access the commission's systems for more than a year.

China hit back the saying the claims were "malicious slander".

Last June, Google subsidiary Mandiant said online attackers with clear links to China were behind a vast cyberespionage campaign targeting government agencies of interest to Beijing.

Washington has frequently accused Beijing of cyberattacks against U.S. targets.

Last month two British men, including a former U.K. parliamentary researcher, appeared in court in London accused of spying for China.

Defense Secretary Grant Shapps will give further details of the Ministry of Defense data breach to parliament later on Tuesday.