Grant Shapps has apologised to the armed forces hit by the Ministry of Defence cyberattack as he confirmed up to 272,000 personnel have been affected.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday afternoon, he said: “I want to apologise for the men and women affected – it should not happen.”
He said that “state involvement” in the cyberattack on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) cannot be ruled out amid speculation China carried out the hack.
Mr Shapps declined to identify the culprit, telling the Commons: “For reasons of national security, we can’t release further details of the suspected cyber activity behind this incident.
“However, I can confirm to the House that we do have indications that this was the suspected work of a malign actor and we cannot rule out state involvement.”
Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey named the contractor as SSCL.
