UK defense minister Grant Shapps confirms cyberattack and data breach involving a payments system for the UK Armed Forces — names, bank account information, and some addresses of military personnel.
"This is an external system... operated by a contractor," says Shapps.
I think a big question here is why U.K. military personnel data was being handled by a third-party contractor? Government systems might not be much stronger, but another consequence of privatization?
The FT is reporting that the hacked contractor, SSCL, holds the payroll details of most of the British armed forces and 550,000 public servants, including central government.
The key line: "It was set up in 2013 [under a Conservative government] as a joint venture between the cabinet office and Paris-based Sopra Steria, a digital services company, as part of a wider drive by the government to reform the civil service and save taxpayer money by centralising functions."
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