Representative image showing hacking.
Credit: iStock Photo
China hacked into a database holding the personal information of Britain's armed forces in a significant data breach, Sky News reported on Tuesday.
Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has declined to comment on any Chinese role but it said Defence Minister Grant Shapps would make a statement to parliament later to set out a "multi-point plan to support and protect personnel".
Sky said he was unlikely to name the country involved.
In response to the report, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Beijing opposed and fought all forms of cyber attack, and rejected any attempt to use the issue of hacking for political ends to smear other countries.
"The relevant remarks from UK politicians are absurd," he said, in response to British political reaction to the report.
Britain and China have increasingly sparred over the issue of hacking, with London saying in March that Chinese hackers and a Chinese entity were behind two high-profile attacks in recent years - the targeting of lawmakers critical of China, and an assault on the country's electoral watchdog.
It has strained ties as Britain sought to strike a delicate balance between trying to neutralise security threats posed by China while maintaining or even enhancing engagement in some areas such as trade, investment and climate change.
But there has been growing anxiety about its alleged espionage activity in Britain, particularly ahead of a national election expected later this year, and some British politicians have become increasingly vocal over the threat that they say China poses.
Mel Stride, a senior British minister, said the database was managed by an external contractor and had been taken offline quickly.
"The MoD has acted very swiftly to take this database offline. It's a third-party database and certainly not one run directly by the MoD," he told Sky News.