UK defence ministry hit by large-scale cyberattack

The UK's defence ministry has been hit by a significant cyberattack, confirmed by a government minister on Monday.

Mel Stride, the work and pensions minister, described the attack as targeting a system managed by an external firm and stated that it was still a "very significant matter".

According to Tobias Ellwood, a former minister in the Conservative government, the attack aimed at a third-party payroll system used by the ministry of defence and bore the hallmarks of a Chinese cyber attack.

"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," Ellwood told BBC Radio.

The breach reportedly exposed the names, bank details, and in some cases, personal addresses of current and former armed forces members.

Stride told Sky News that the Ministry of Defence swiftly took the affected database offline but refrained from directly attributing the attack to Beijing.

"That is an assumption... we are not saying that at this precise moment," he said.

Further details on the incident will be presented by defence secretary Grant Shapps to parliament later in the day.

(AFP)