Tens of thousands of British Airways, BBC and Boots staff may have had their personal details stolen following a suspected Russia-linked cyber attack, The Telegraph can disclose.

BA has written to many of its 34,000-strong workforce warning them of a “cyber security incident which has led to the disclosure of personal information about colleagues paid through British Airways’ payroll in the UK and Ireland”.

An email to BA staff — seen by the Telegraph — warns that the compromised information includes names, addresses, national insurance numbers, banking details and other information.

The hack is linked to BA’s payroll provider, Zellis, and other companies that work with the company have also had their information stolen.

Boots has emailed employees saying that staff’s names, surnames, employee numbers, dates of birth, email addresses, the first lines of their home addresses and national insurance numbers have been affected. It said a “very small number” of employees may have had other data compromised.

A BBC spokesman confirmed they were also affected by the hack. The spokesman said: “We are aware of a data breach at our third-party supplier, Zellis, and are working closely with them as they urgently investigate the extent of the breach.