UK lawmakers hit by cyber security attack
The British parliament has been hit by a cyber attack that is preventing lawmakers from accessing their emails when not in Westminster, politicians and media reports said on Saturday.
The Telegraph newspaper said lawmakers were alerted to the hack on Friday and were unable to access their email accounts on Saturday.
Chris Rennard, a member of the Liberal Democrat party in the upper House of Lords, said on Twitter: „Cyber security attack on Westminster, Parliamentary emails may not work remotely, Text urgent messages.”
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Cyber security attack on Westminster Parliamentary e.mails may not work remotely Text urgent messages @LibDemLords @LabourLordsUK @Torypeers
— Chris Rennard (@LordRennard) June 24, 2017
The BBC quoted a spokeswoman at the House of Commons as saying the lack of email access was due to the steps being taken to manage the issue.
“The Houses of Parliament have discovered unauthorised attempts to access parliamentary user accounts,” the spokeswoman said.
“We are continuing to investigate this incident and take further measures to secure the computer network, liaising with the National Cyber Security Centre. Systems were in place to protect member and staff accounts. As a result, some Members of Parliament and staff cannot access their email accounts outside of Westminster”, she said.
Part of the GCHQ spy agency, the National Cyber Security centre was set up in October last year to tackle what the government believes is one of the biggest threats to British security.
Liam Fox, the minister for international trade, said the attack was not a surprise and should act as a warning to Britons.
“We’ve seen reports in the last few days of even cabinet ministers’ passwords being for sale online,” he told broadcasters.
“We know that our public services are attacked so it’s not at all surprising that there should be an attempt to hack into parliamentary emails.”
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Britain’s National Health Service was hit by a massive ransomware worm in May which crippled the computer system and forced some hospitals to turn away patients and divert ambulances.
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