The US headquarters of credit reference agency Equifax, in Atlanta, was the target of the hacking attack in 2017

The personal information of more than 13 million Britons was stolen by a team of Chinese military hackers in an elaborate “criminal heist” spanning the globe.

Four members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) plundered credit card details, passwords and telephone numbers as part of the biggest state-sponsored theft of individuals’ private data yet uncovered.

The Beijing-based hackers, who were identified by the FBI last week, sought to hide their tracks by exploiting a network of computers in almost 20 countries, including Holland and Switzerland.

The target of their huge cyber-attack was the US headquarters of Equifax, an international credit reference agency.

Investigators fear the stolen information could be used by China to target British and American citizens working in sensitive research fields, such as