Foreign hacker attack on poll

A FOREIGN cyber attack may have crashed a voter registration website in the run-up to the EU referendum.

But MPs on the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee did not identify who may have been responsible.

Their warning comes amid repeated claims that Russia had tried to interfere in the US presidential election.

A voter registration website crashed on June 7 last year just hours before the deadline for people to sign up to vote in the referendum.

However, the committee said the crash had signs of hackers using so-called botnets to overwhelm the site.

It said while the incident had no material affect on the outcome of the referendum, it was crucial that lessons were learned for future votes which must extend beyond purely technical issues.

MPs added: “PACAC is deeply concerned about these allegations about foreign interference.”

The committee was also highly critical of the way David Cameron resigned when he lost the referendum.

It said that in future referendums, a prime minister should be prepared to carry on. THE UK coffee shop business has grown by 37% over the past five years and is forecast to rise a further 29% in the next five years, say analysts Mintel.

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