The UK Labour Party has stated that it has been hit by a “sophisticated and large-scale cyber-attack” on its digital platforms.
As report by Sky News, a party spokesperson said that the attack failed to breach any data because of the party’s robust security systems.
“Security procedures have slowed down some of our campaign activities, but these were restored this morning and we are back up to full speed,” she said. “We have reported the matter to the National Cyber Security Centre.”
It is believed that the the attack was a Distribute Deniable of Service attack.
Commenting on the news, Corin Imai, senior security advisor at DomainTools, said: “This should be a significant concern to all voters in the UK regardless of their political viewpoints. During a General Election, it is imperative that the main political parties are all given a fair and impartial hearing, and considering the importance of digital campaigning in modern election cycles, a DDoS attack such as this could give other parties an advantage.
“While there is no indication of where this cyber-attack comes from, and it is obviously encouraging that the Labour party said these attempts failed, the incident is an example of just how susceptible to cyber-criminal activity our democratic process can be.”
Dean Ferrando, systems engineer manager – EMEA, at Tripwire, added: “Political organizations should boost their security resources in this particularly sensitive election period, and make sure they implement the necessary patches, system upgrades and security measures. There is always a danger that attacks on this scale are around the corner. It just means organizations need to be one (or four) steps ahead of the attackers.”