A company has been named in parliament as the contractor managing the Defense Ministry’s payroll that was hacked by China – an accusation the country has denied.
Labor Defense Secretary John Healey claimed in the House of Commons on Tuesday that SSCL (Shared Services Connected Ltd) is the contractor after Sky News revealed the night before that the Chinese state hacked the military’s payroll system.
China said the accusations were “completely fabricated and malicious slander.”
Defense Secretary Grant Shapps gave a statement to MPs on Tuesday about the hack – but did not say who was behind it or which company handled the payroll.
In response, Healey said the minister had “many serious questions to answer” and stated that “Shared Services Connected Ltd has the MOD contract for core payroll and other business services”.
In response, Mr Shapps said this was correct and called for a review of his work across government.
Shapps said: “He named the contractor involved, I can confirm that is the correct name, SSCL.
“I have asked the Cabinet for a full review of its work in government as well as within Mod, which is ongoing.”
Names, addresses and bank details of current Army, Royal Navy and RAF employees and some veterans were exposed by the hack.
SSCL is a subsidiary of Paris-based technology company Sopra Steria. The company is the largest provider of business support services to the UK government and military, as well as the Metropolitan Police Service.
Its website claims it provides payroll, HR and pensions services to 230,000 military personnel and reservists, and two million veterans, with a “completely secure service” that is “data protected at the highest levels.”
Rishi Sunak previously refused to name China as the hacker, but said Beijing has “fundamentally different values to ours” and is “acting in a more authoritarian and assertive way abroad”.
The Prime Minister said he wanted to reassure people that the Ministry of Defense has now removed the network, taken it offline and is “ensuring those affected are supported in the right way”.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London denied that the country had anything to do with an MoD hack and said it had given “relevant responses” to the allegations on March 25 and 27.
He accused the UK of politicizing cyber security and claimed there was no factual evidence that China had hacked the Ministry of Defence.
Sky News has approached SSCL and Sopra Steria for comment.
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