Royal Navy surveillance drones used by Britain’s elite special forces were fitted with cameras containing Chinese-made components that were secretly sending data to an address in China.
The K3 Scout drones, operated by Royal Marines, were found to be transmitting so-called ‘heartbeat’ communications to an IP address in China.
The signals were designed to tell a remote device that the cameras were online and operating normally.
The discovery has triggered national security concerns and forced the Ministry of Defence to strip the cameras of their internet connectivity.
Officials insist there is no evidence that sensitive military information or Ministry of Defence systems were accessed
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