Hackers have attempted to breach internet accounts associated with the U.K. Parliament, British authorities said Saturday, triggering a security response that left lawmakers unable to access their emails outside of Westminster this weekend.
The Houses of Parliament “discovered unauthorized attempts to access accounts of parliamentary network users” and is actively investigating the incident in coordination with the U.K. National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), it said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
Members of Parliament were first warned about the attempted cyberattack Friday evening, BBC reported. The alert said Parliament’s IT services department had detected “unusual activity” on its network and confirmed upon further investigation that hackers had conducted “a sustained and determined attack on all parliamentary user accounts in an attempt to identify weak passwords,” according to a copy of the notification seen by The Guardian.
Hackers “specifically were trying to gain access to our emails,” the notice said, according to The Guardian.
It was not immediately clear if any of the attempted intrusions were successful.
“Parliament has robust measures in place to protect all of our accounts and systems, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect and secure our network,” its press office said in a statement Saturday. “As a precaution we have temporarily restricted remote access to the network. As a result, some Members of Parliament and staff cannot access their email accounts outside of Westminster.”
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Indeed, several lawmakers took to Twitter on Saturday upon finding themselves unable to access their email accounts.
“Sorry no parliamentary email access today - we’re under cyber attack from Kim Jong Un, Putin or a kid in his mom’s basement or something…,” tweeted Henry Smith, a Conservative representing Crawley in the U.K. Parliament.
“Cyber security attack on Westminster,” tweeted Chris Rennard, a Liberal Democrat and life peer in the House of Lords. “Text urgent messages,” he added.
Britain’s National Crime Agency is was aware of the attempted cyberattack and is “actively cooperating” with the NCSC, it said Saturday.
The attempted breach is hardly the only major cybersecurity incident endured by the British government as of late: the unprecedented WannaCry ransomware attack briefly crippled the computers used by its National Health Service last month, among other victims; more recently, British media reported on Thursday this week that hackers have been actively swapping stolen login credentials pertaining to 1,000 members of Parliament and staff.
“We know that there are regular attacks by hackers attempting to get passwords. We have seen reports in the last few days of even Cabinet ministers’ passwords being for sale online. We know that our public services are attacked, so it is not at all surprising that there should be an attempt to hack into parliamentary emails,” International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told BBC on Saturday.
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