China suspected of UK armed forces payroll hack

The government suspects China was behind the hack of an armed forces payroll system, the BBC understands.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps will not identify a specific culprit when he addresses MPs today, but is expected to warn of the dangers posed by cyber espionage from hostile states.

The system used by the Ministry of Defence includes names and bank details of armed forces personnel.

In a very small number of cases, the data may include personal addresses.