Did Labour cynically hit panic button over ‘Russia cyber hack’?
Defence minister attacks ‘distraction tactics’
LABOUR was last night accused of ‘playing politics’ with national security after allegedly exaggerating a cyber-attack targeting its digital platforms.
The party claimed it had suffered a ‘largescale and sophisticated’ attack designed to take its computer systems offline.
But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace accused Jeremy Corbyn of using the attack to ‘distract from his dire campaign’ after security sources downplayed its significance.
A Labour source told the BBC the attack on Monday came from computers in Russia and Brazil. Mr Corbyn told a rally in Blackpool yesterday that it made him ‘very nervous’ and described a cyber-attack during an election as something to be ‘very worried about’.
Labour later announced it was suffering a second cyber-attack in the form of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) after successfully thwarting the first one.
But within hours of the party sending out a statement about the first incident, security sources dismissed it as ‘a low-level attack’ and said it was not linked to a foreign state.
It was considered too ‘minor’ to meet the threshold to be investigated by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Cyber experts said it was so unsophisticated that it could have been launched by a ‘13-yearold’ at home. Mr Wallace said: ‘Corbyn is desperate to distract from his dire campaign. Why would Russia attack the Labour Party whose leaders want to break up Nato and never use the nuclear deterrent?’
Tory candidate Jack Lopresti added: ‘Labour are playing politics with our national security. Experts have said there is no evidence of a sophisticated cyber-attack conducted by a nation state.
‘It is absolutely irresponsible to be exaggerating the facts for political gain.’
DDoS attacks – where hackers flood a target’s online platforms with traffic causing them to slow or crash – are relatively common.
Philip Ingram, a former colonel in British military intelligence turned cyber expert, said: ‘It does not sound sophisticated.
‘DDoS attacks can be bought online for a few pounds so it could have been from anyone – [from a] 13-year-old at home to someone in Labour HQ trying to create a messaging opportunity.’
Labour’s head of campaigns, Niall Sookoo, said yesterday: ‘Our security systems identified that, in a very short period of time, there were large-scale and sophisticated attacks on Labour Party platforms which had the intention of taking our systems entirely offline.
‘Every single one of these attempts failed due to our robust security systems.’
Labour informed the NCSC about the attack but it is understood it did not reach the ‘category 6’ level required for an investigation. An NCSC spokesman said the incident ‘is now closed’.
The attacks came after The Times reported that Labour had published the names of people who have donated to the party through its website.
An apparent security flaw had led to the donors’ first names, the amount they contributed and when they made the donation being published on the internet.
It is understood the Tory party was yesterday also hit by a cyber attack which tried to force its website offline. Sources said the attack began shortly before 4pm and lasted for less than an hour without managing to take down any of the party’s internet pages.
It came as Hillary Clinton waded into the row over Boris Johnson’s refusal to publish a report over Russian interference in elections as she promoted her new book yesterday. The former US presidential candidate slammed the ‘shameful’ delay in releasing the results of a parliamentary inquiry into Russian meddling in UK politics.
And Australia’s former top diplomat warned that intelligence sharing with Britain would have to be ‘substantially reduced’ if Mr Corbyn gets into power.
Former Australian High Commissioner in London, Alexander Downer, said a Labour election victory would trigger a reassessment of the ‘very intimate’ security relationship between Canberra and London. He also warned that a Corbyn win on December 12 could endanger substantial Australian investments in Britain.
‘It could have been done by a 13-year-old’