The Prime Minister has declined to identify the “malign actor” behind a cyber attack on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) amid speculation China carried out the hack.
The Government has confirmed that a third-party payroll system was hacked, potentially compromising the bank details of service personnel and veterans. A very small number of addresses may also have been accessed.
Speaking to broadcasters in south-east London, Rishi Sunak said there were “indications that a malign actor” had compromised the database, but declined to attribute the attack to a specific state or “actor”.
Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, will update MPs on the cyber attack later on Tuesday, but is also not expected to say who was behind it.
Pressed on his stance on China, Mr Sunak said he had set out “a very robust policy” towards Beijing, taking the powers necessary “to protect ourselves against the risk that China and other countries pose to us”.
He added that Britain was facing “an axis of authoritarian states, including Russia, Iran, North Korea and China” that “pose a risk to our values, our interests and, indeed, our country”.
Mr Sunak sought to reassure the public that the MoD had already acted by taking the relevant network offline and offering support to personnel affected by the incident.
Downing Street said the Government had also launched a security review of the contractor’s operations.
The Government’s refreshed review of foreign and defence policy had cybersecurity “right at the heart of that, exactly these kinds of risks, particularly when it comes to state actors”.
It is understood that initial investigations have found no evidence that data has been removed.
But affected service personnel will be alerted as a precaution and provided with specialist advice. They will be able to use a personal data protection service to check whether their information is being used or an attempt is being made to use it.
All salaries were paid at the last payday, with no issues expected at 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.
The MoD confirmed Mr Shapps “will make a planned statement to the House of Commons this afternoon setting out the multi-point plan to support and protect personnel”.
Ministers will blame hostile and malign actors, but will not name the country behind the hacking.
The MoD has been working at speed to uncover the scale of the attack since it was discovered several days ago.
Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey said: “So many serious questions for the Defence Secretary on this, especially from forces personnel whose details were targeted.”
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy said claims Beijing was behind the attack were “completely fabricated and malicious slanders”.
They said: “China has always firmly fought all forms of cyber attacks according to law.
“China does not encourage, support or condone cyber attacks. At the same time, we oppose the politicisation of cybersecurity issues and the baseless denigration of other countries without factual evidence.
“China has always upheld the principle of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. China has neither the interest nor the need to meddle in the internal affairs of the UK.
“We urge the relevant parties in the UK to stop spreading false information, stop fabricating so-called China threat narratives, and stop their anti-China political farce.”
The revelation comes after the UK and the US in March accused China of a global campaign of “malicious” cyber attacks in an unprecedented joint operation to reveal Beijing’s espionage.
Britain blamed Beijing for targeting the Electoral Commission watchdog in 2021 and for being behind a campaign of online “reconnaissance” aimed at the email accounts of MPs and peers.
In response to the Beijing-linked hacks on the Electoral Commission and 43 individuals, a front company, Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company, and two people linked to the APT31 hacking group were sanctioned.
But some of the MPs targeted by the Chinese state said the response did not go far enough, urging the Government to toughen its stance on China by labelling it a “threat” to national security rather than an “epoch-defining challenge”.
Conservative former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith repeated those calls, telling Sky News: “This is yet another example of why the UK Government must admit that China poses a systemic threat to the UK and change the integrated review to reflect that.
“No more pretence, it is a malign actor, supporting Russia with money and military equipment, working with Iran and North Korea in a new axis of totalitarian states.”
Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “Targeting the names of the payroll system and service personnel’s bank details, this does point to China because it can be as part of a plan, a strategy to see who might be coerced.”
