British Armed Forces personnel details 'hacked by China'

The Chinese state has hacked the UK's Ministry of Defence and accessed details of Armed Forces personnel, according to reports. 

The breach is said to have targeted a third-party payroll system used by the MoD. "The vast majority of military personnel are believed to have been affected, a total of about 270,000 including regulars, reservists and veterans who have recently left the military, but not members of the special forces, which use a different system," said The Times.

The MoD became aware of the breach "several days ago", The Guardian said, and has "been working to understand its scale and impact" before contacting employees whose details have been compromised. There is currently no suggestion that any data was removed during the attack.

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The investigation is understood to be in its early stages, and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps is not expected to explicitly identify China as the culprit when he addresses MPs later today. A spokesperson for China's foreign affairs ministry said Beijing "opposes all forms of cyber attacks".

Yet the details of the breach "point to China", former Commons Defence Committee chairman Tobias Ellwood told BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme. Obtaining personal data like this can be part of "a strategy to see who might be coerced".

In March, the UK government warned that China's "state-affiliated actors" had engaged in a pattern of "malicious cyber activities targeting democratic institutions and electoral processes". The Electoral Commission was "highly likely compromised by a Chinese state-affiliated entity", and another Beijing-backed group carried out "online reconnaissance activity" targeting UK parliamentarians "prominent in calling out the malign activity of China".

The latest attack "could raise questions" about whether the UK's allies that have "strained relationships with China" will wish to "share sensitive intelligence" with Britain in the future, said The Telegraph.