A third-party payroll system has been hacked, compromising bank details of serving armed forces personnel and some veterans. A very small number of addresses may also be accessed. After discovering the breach, the department took immediate action, taking offline the external network operated by a contractor. It seems that the preliminary investigation did not find any evidence of the deletion of data. In some cases, there was a slight delay in the payment of expenses but at the end of this month, the salaries were paid in the last salary without any problems.

The UK government will inform lawmakers about the breach when Parliament returns on Tuesday, with Defense Secretary Grant Shapps expected to make a statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon. Ministers blame and discredit hostile actors but won't name the country behind the hacking. Since the discovery of the attack several days ago, the Ministry of Defense has been working fast to uncover its full extent. The revelations come after the UK and US accused China of spreading "malicious" cyber attacks around the world in an unprecedented joint operation to expose Beijing's espionage.

Britain has accused Beijing of targeting the Electoral Commission watchdog in 2021 and being behind an online "surveillance" campaign targeting the email accounts of MPs and colleagues. Labour's shadow defence secretary, John Healy, said: "The defence secretary has very serious questions about this, particularly targeting details from armed forces personnel." "Such hateful act is totally unacceptable. Parliament expects a full Commons statement tomorrow," Healy said.