NATO's top commander has been embroiled in a major security alert after a fake Facebook account was opened under his name by "Chinese spies".

Senior British military officers and defence ministry staff are understood to have accepted "friend requests" from a bogus account for NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Admiral James Stavridis, the Daily Mail reported.

In the mistaken belief that they had linked up with the US admiral on the social networking site, they then unwittingly provided a treasure trove of personal details - including photographs, phone numbers and email addresses.

NATO will not officially say who was behind the cyber-fraud or who accepted friend requests but according to the Daily Mail, evidence points to Chinese state-sponsored hackers.

Stavridis was in charge of operations in Libya.

Source: Indo-Asia News Service