Parliament has been hit by a cyberattack, days after an online group claimed it had hacked ministers’ email accounts.
An email sent to parliamentarians on Friday and shown to Sky News said: « Earlier this morning we discovered unusual activity and evidence of an attempted cyberattack on our computer network.
« Closer investigation by our team confirmed that hackers were carrying out a sustained and determined attack on all parliamentary user accounts in an attempt to identify weak passwords.
« These attempts specifically were trying to gain access to users’ emails. »
Senior MPs have said they still cannot access their emails today and have been warned that more services could be made unavailable as they « continue to work through security processes ».
A House of Commons 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.
« We have systems in place to protect member and staff accounts and are taking the necessary steps to protect our systems. »
The lack of remote access to emails was not part of the attack but was due to measures taken by those trying to deal with the incident.
« Parliament has disabled remote access to protect the network, » she said.
Sky’s Home Affairs Editor Mark White said: « It comes just a few days after an online group claimed it had hacked the email accounts and passwords of Government ministers and was offering that for sale.
« It comes just a month after that huge ransomware attack that affected many NHS trusts across the UK. »
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said: « We know there are regular attacks by hackers attempting to get passwords.
« We’ve seen reports in the last few days of even cabinet ministers’ passwords being for sale online.
« It is not at all surprising that there should be an attempt to hack into parliamentary emails and it is a warning to everybody, whether they are in Parliament or elsewhere, that they need to do everything possible to maintain their own cybersecurity. »
A spokesman for the National Cyber Security Centre said: « The NCSC is aware of incident and working around the clock with the UK Parliamentary digital security team to understand what has happened and advise on the necessary mitigating actions. »
More follows…
