Ministry of Defense ‘hacked by China’ as cyber attack causes ‘massive data breach’ including names and bank details

The Ministry of Defense was hacked by China with the cyber attack causing a massive data breach, according to reports.

Parliamentarians will be informed on Tuesday about the attack that targeted service personnel.

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While the government won’t reveal the country behind it, Sky News says it understands it is China.

Beijing is believed to be accused of two or three attempts to hack Defense Ministry employees.

The attack is believed to have been carried out on a payroll system that included current service personnel, some employees and some veterans.

Mainly names and bank details were exposed, the report said.

All salaries will be paid this month.

The attacked contractor’s system is not connected to the Ministry of Defense’s main IT systems and was taken offline during a review.

The Ministry of Defense is said to be assessing the scale of the hack.

The news comes less than two months after China’s “state-affiliated actors” were held responsible by the government for two “malicious” cyber attack campaigns in the UK.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told the House of Commons that two incidents involved an attack on the Electoral Commission – responsible for overseeing elections and political finances – in 2021, and targeted attacks against China-sceptic MPs.

The head of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), Luke de Pulford, said the revelation needed to be a “turning point”.

Conservative Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Labour’s Azfal Khan are also part of IPAC.

De Pulford said: “This should represent a turning point.

“These are actions suited to hybrid warfare, not the ‘mutual respect’ that Beijing and London regularly boast of.

“China under Xi Jinping is not a friend.

“Take off the blinders. Our China strategy has failed. We need some realism quickly.”

Sir Iain said Sky News: “This is yet another example of why the UK government must admit that China poses a systemic threat to the UK and amend the integrated review to reflect this.

“Enough with the pretense, he is an evil actor, supporting Russia with money and military equipment, working with Iran and North Korea in a new axis of totalitarian states.”

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