DAILY MAIL COMMENT: It's time to get tough on China's spying trends now
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News that the Government suspects China of being behind the massive hack of a payroll system used by the Ministry of Defence should surprise nobody.
Beijing has a long track record of conducting cyber attacks as a way of undermining Western democracies to serve its own malign interests.
In the latest incident, hackers harvested the personal details – including names and bank details – of more than 250,000 serving and former members of the Armed Forces.
While it's reassuring to be told no sensitive operational information was obtained, this security breach is deeply troubling.
China could easily use the stolen data to blackmail service personnel into divulging secrets which will help give it an edge militarily. And by hoovering up this and other databases on an industrial scale, Beijing can search for weaknesses in British society and national security.
British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps attending a cabinet meeting in London yesterday
The Government suspects China of being behind the massive hack of a payroll system used by the Ministry of Defence
It's true the compromised software was run by a Government contractor, but if MoD information can't be kept safe, it begs the question: What can?
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has not publicly pointed the finger of blame, but even had he done so, the Chinese authorities wouldn't ease up on the espionage.
They know Britain is increasingly tied to their country's economic apron-strings. The trade benefits are so great that shunning China would be an act of self-harm.
But we must adopt a tougher and more
