Ministry of Defense hit by Chinese cyber attack as workers warn details could be stolen

Thousands of Ministry of Defense workers in Bristol have been warned that their bank details could have been stolen by the Chinese in a cyber attack that targeted the armed forces and Ministry of Defense staff.

Government ministers have reacted to reports that China was behind the cyber attack, which targeted a third-party payroll system for Ministry of Defense employees and compromised the bank details of all serving personnel and some veterans. A very small number of addresses may also have been accessed.

The MoD Abbey Wood complex in Filton employs up to 13,000 people in procurement for all three branches of the armed forces as part of the Defense and Support Equipment component.

Read more: All the Bristol local election drama and what’s next

Read more: Assailant who threatened ex-partner with baseball bat on Valentine’s Day jailed for three years

The Ministry of Defense (MOD) took immediate action when it discovered the breach, taking the external network – operated by a contractor – offline. Cabinet minister Mel Stride said the government takes cyber security “extremely seriously”. The World and Pensions Secretary said the government was not yet blaming Beijing.

He told Sky News, which first claimed China was behind the hack: “This is an assumption. We’re not saying that at this precise moment.”

But Mr Stride said the government saw Beijing’s government as an “age-defining challenge” and “our eyes are wide open when it comes to China”.

He confirmed the attack was on a third-party system, rather than an MoD database, but “however, this is still a very important matter”.

The Ministry of Defense acted “very quickly” to take the database offline, he added. “We take cyber security extremely seriously. Our intelligence services do it, our military does it too.”

The Government’s refreshed review of foreign and defense policy had cyber security “right at the heart of it, exactly these kinds of risks, particularly when it comes to state actors”.

It is understood that initial investigations found no evidence that the data had been removed.

But affected service personnel will be alerted as a precaution and given specialist advice. They will be able to use a privacy protection service to check whether their information is being used or attempted to be used.

All salaries were paid on the last pay day, with no problems expected on the next one at the end of this month, although there may be a slight delay in the payment of expenses in a small number of cases.

A new dedicated phone line has been set up for concerned Ministry of Defense staff and it is feared that up to 270,000 soldiers, cadets and reservists have been affected. Today, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticized the Chinese but did not explicitly say they were behind the cyber attack. He hit out at “authoritarian and assertive China” but refused to point the finger at them for infringement.

Mr Sunak said “a malign actor compromised the armed forces’ payment network” and insisted the government had a “very robust policy towards China”. He added: “They are a country with fundamentally different values ​​than ours, which acts in a more authoritarian and assertive way abroad.”