'Alarming' data breach | Hackers access 270,000 payroll records of armed forces personnel

More than a quarter of a million payroll records of British armed forces members have been exposed to hackers following a major data breach.

An estimated 270,000 records held by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have been accessed after a breach at a third-party contractor was discovered several days ago.

It is believed that the data includes the names and bank details of full-time military personnel, reservists and veterans who left the forces after January 2018. An MP is also thought to have had their payroll information breached.

The hack is alleged to have been the work of Chinese operatives - a claim which the nation has denied - with defence secretary Grant Shapps telling MPs the breach was the “suspected work of a malign actor and we cannot rule out state involvement”.