SAS heroes and missions risk being exposed by major hack of armed forces payroll by ‘malign actors’

SAS heroes and missions risk being exposed by a major hack of the armed forces’ payroll.

“Malign actors” were said to have accessed up to 270,000 MoD pay records and thousands of addresses.

The hack was discovered only last week and yesterday Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told the Commons that state involvement could not be ruled out.

Despite pressure to name China he declined to do so, saying the Government lacked conclusive evidence at this time.

Sources insist names of SAS, SBS and Special Reconnaissance Regiment soldiers are not in the stolen lists.

But spies could compare them with open-source records of names — including from social media posts before soldiers joined special units.

Ex-Army spook Philip Ingram warned: “State hackers like China hoover everything up, then use artificial intelligence to piece a picture together.

“If a piece of data is missing, it arouses suspicion. A lack of information where you are expecting something to be there is an indicator to look harder.”

Experts fear the hackers could also look at special status pay for those in high-value roles such as special forces and pilots.

High-profile victims could include Bond star Daniel Craig — an honorary Navy commander — plus Home Secretary James Cleverly, and , who are reservists.

The Sun understands the hack targeted contractor SSCL, who also work for the Home Office, the Met and nuclear agencies.

In 2020, SSCL suffered a similar attack when it lost control of prison officers’ data.