UK Ministry of Defence payroll system breach exposes armed forces' bank details
An external payroll system used by the UK Ministry of Defence was hacked, exposing personal data including bank details of up to 272,000 serving personnel and recent veterans. The UK government attributed it to an attack by a malicious actor and did not rule out state involvement. It later emerged that the company operating the system had not reported the breach for months.
Key facts
- Affected organisation
- UK Ministry of Defence
- Incident type
- Data breach
- Occurred / detected
- Not confirmed
- Scale of damage
- Personal data including bank details of up to 272,000 serving personnel and recent veterans
- Cause / method
- Hack of a payroll system operated by an external contractor
- Location
- United Kingdom
If your data was exposed
Exposed dataBank account
Timeline
- It emerged that a hack linked to the UK Ministry of Defence had exposed armed forces personnel's personal data and bank details.
- The UK government described a malicious actor's attack on the payroll system, with up to 272,000 people reported affected.
- It emerged that a Ministry of Defence contractor had not reported the breach for months.
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Other incidents at UK Ministry of Defence
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Impact: Classified information
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Impact: Thousands more Afghans affected
A further data breach at the Ministry of Defence affected Afghans resettled in the UK. Ministers said thousands more people were affected by the second breach.
Related reports: 3 · last report →Ministry of Defence leaks data on thousands of Afghans
Impact: Leak of data on thousands of Afghans
The Ministry of Defence leaked the data of thousands of at-risk Afghans. Following the leak, more than 7,300 people became eligible for resettlement in the UK, and it was suggested that the leak may be linked to at least 49 deaths. Victims pursued legal action, and Parliament criticised the measures to prevent a recurrence as insufficient.
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The summary and key facts are written by AI from related reports and may contain errors. Check the original articles and the organisation’s official statements for accurate details.