LABOUR has been hit by a “sophisticated” and “large scale” cyber attack, the party said today.
In a letter to party staff their elections director said yesterday afternoon they were targeted, with the intention to “take our systems entirely offline”.
In a letter from Niall Sookoo, the party’s Executive Director for elections and campaigns, he told staff that many systems had “reduced functionality” and were working “very slowly”.
He said: “Yesterday afternoon our security systems identified that, in a very short period of time, there were large scale and sophisticated attacks on Labour platforms which had the intention of taking our systems entirely offline.
“Every single one of these attempts failed due to our robust security systems and the integrity of all our platforms and data was maintained.”
He said their campaigns systems had been reduced as a result.
A Labour spokeswoman said the attack had “failed” because of the party’s “robust” security systems and they were confident no data breach occurred.
They said they had reported the matter to the National Cyber Security Centre.
A party spokesperson said: “We have experienced a sophisticated and large scale cyber attack on Labour digital platforms. We took swift action and these attempts failed due to our robust security systems. The integrity of all our platforms was maintained and we are confident that no data breach occurred.
“Our security procedures have slowed down some of our campaign activities, but these were restored this morning and we are back up to full speed. We have reported the matter to the National Cyber Security Centre.
“Labour is out campaigning hard both on and offline for a Labour government that will bring the real change our country needs.”
