MP says security‘paramount’after hack
The MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow has said online security at Westminster is paramount – after a cyber attack crippled parliamentary emails.
The“sustained”hack began on Friday night, prompting officials to disable remote access to the emails of MPs, peers and their staff as a safeguard.
Dr Lisa Cameron had her work disrupted by the hackers who made unauthorised attempts to access accounts of parliamentary network users.
A number of MPs were unable to access their parliamentary email accounts outside of the Westminster estate.
Dr Cameron said:“There are real concerns associated with the cyber attack but I am working closely with parliamentary digital services and security must be paramount.”
Former defence secretary Liam Fox MP, originally from East Kilbride, said there were reports of Cabinet ministers’passwords being for sale online.
He said: “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.”
A parliamentary spokeswoman said they were investigating the attack and liaising with the National Cyber Security Centre.
It comes just a month after a number of NHS health boards across the UK were left in chaos when computer systems were hacked.