UK Ministry of Defence

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2024: British MoD servers hacked. Stolen military data, including banking

On May 7, 2024, information appeared about the hacking of the servers of the British Ministry of Defense. Cybercriminals stole the personal data of current and former military personnel, including financial information.

According to Sky News, citing informed sources, the systems of the contractor of the Ministry of Defense were attacked. In particular, the invasion affected the payroll processing platform. As a result, the attackers had at their disposal such data as the names and bank details of defense officials and military personnel. In a small number of cases, we can also talk about home addresses. In general, information about tens of thousands of people could have been stolen.

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Immediately after the fact of the invasion was discovered, the affected servers were disconnected. It is noted that the affected database is not related to the IT infrastructure of the Ministry of Defense, and therefore there was no leak of classified information. As of May 7, 2024, the investigation of the incident continues. Persons whose personal data were in the hands of hackers will receive consulting support.

The Department of Defense took prompt action to disable the compromised system. Since then, experts have been working to assess the scale of the incident and the consequences, the British department said in a statement.

Hackers cyber attack linked to the authorities are behind, according to Sky News. China At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC declares that "resolutely opposes any form of cyber attacks and fights them." In March 2024, the British authorities said that Chinese hackers allegedly hacked into the servers of the Election Commission, while gaining access to the personal data of about 40 million voters in the country. Beijing denies involvement in all these cyber wars.^[1]

2023

Grant Shapps appointed defence secretary

In August 2023, Grant Shapps was appointed British Minister of Defense.

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace's resignation

In an interview with The Times in July 2023, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace confirmed media reports that he would leave the cabinet in September and would not participate in the next general election. After the resignation, the head of the military department dreams of "working in a bar, taking part in Formula 1 or horse racing."

The Secretary of Defense counted on the post of Secretary General, NATO but did not receive approval. USA In an interview, he confirmed that he did not expect such an outcome: "Why did they not support their closest ally when they nominated candidates? I think it's a fair question.'

Finally, Wallace recalled that the main security threats are Russia and China, which is increasing its power, as well as the activities of terrorist groups. During his tenure, the head of the military department took an active part in supporting Ukraine.

2022

Hacking social media to advertise NFTs and cryptocurrencies

On July 4, 2022, it became known that the social networks of the British Ministry of Defense became the target of hackers: Twitter and YouTube accounts were hacked and used to promote NFT and cryptocurrencies.

The profile picture, biography and cover photo of the organization's Twitter account were changed to content related to the NFT collection "The Possessed," which contains more than 10 thousand digital animated NFTs created on the topic of a fictional outbreak of the disease. The company that created the collection did not comment on the recent hack in any way, but a tweet from July 2022 warns its subscribers that their verified account has been hacked and fraudulently advertises the NFT collection.

British Defense Ministry social networks hacked to advertise NFT and cryptocurrencies

The hacked Twitter account also posted several retweets about various other NFT pranks, with its attached tweet referencing a fake NFT mining website.

On the British MoD's YouTube channel, all footage has been deleted and replaced with a series of old footage featuring former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and TeslaElon Musk CEO edited to encourage viewers to buy cryptocurrencies. In addition, the profile photo and account name were changed to mimic Ark Invest, a legal investment company that held a conference in June 2021, on the channel of which videos with Dorsey and Musk were published.

Both accounts were subsequently returned to their original state, with the Ministry of Defence admitting the breach and saying an investigation had been launched into the incident.

The Army takes information security very seriously and it would be inappropriate to comment further until the investigation is completed, the MoD said in a statement.[2]

Defense Minister communicates with pranksters from Russia

In March 2022, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace spoke with Russian prankers Vovan and Lexus, whom he mistook for Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal.

On March 17, Lexus (Aleksei Stolyarov) and Vovan (Vladimir Kuznetsov) outwitted British Defense Minister Ben Wallace. They talked about the neutral status of Ukraine, nuclear weapons and secret peacekeepers. The prime minister answered the questions a little dodgily, but spoke about the supply of 4,000 portable guided missiles and the transfer of the British military to the territory of Ukraine over the past 5 years. And about the nuclear power plant - you can, if careful.

The British authorities demanded that YouTube remove the recording because it "poses a threat to the country's security."

2021: Using financiers to harm Russia, China and Iran

Ministry of Defence Great Britain uses against, and Russia China Iran a special unit formed from specialists in the field of finance.

According to the Financial Times, published in October 2021, the expert group, whose work is classified, helps the British military "hone the skills of waging economic war" and protect the country from the threat of terrorism, cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns.

The unit, made up of former financiers, was set up six years ago, writes the FT. It was actively used to fight the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia) in Iraq and Syria.

The group members advise other special forces, British intelligence and the 77th Brigade of the British Army, which specializes in electronic and psychological warfare, sources said. According to them, the tasks of the unit could include interfering with financial operations and the interests of the Russian PMC Wagner, as well as combating groups of ransomware hackers whose activities threaten the national infrastructure.

2020: Building a cyber shelf to protect against digital attacks

The UK Ministry of Defence has created the 13th Signal Regiment as part of the Royal Signal Corps of the British Armed Forces, responsible for providing protection against digital attacks. This became known on June 5, 2020. This unit will protect vital defense networks in the country and during operations abroad.

This is another step in the modernization of the UK armed forces, which must be prepared for information war. Cyber attacks are as deadly as those encountered on the physical battlefield, so we must prepare to defend ourselves from any source of threat, and the 13th Signal Regiment is a vital addition to this defence, explained the head of the department Ben Wallace (Ben Wallace).

The specialist unit will provide a framework for the Army Information Security Operations Centre, focusing on protecting the department's domain, and will work^[3] Royal Navy and Royal Air Force to ensure secure networks of all military communications^[4] protect ^[5].

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