UK’s Labour Party Suffers ‘Major Cyber Attack’ Ahead of Election

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Britain's main opposition Labour party said on Tuesday, 12 November, it had suffered a "large-scale cyber attack" which undermined some of its campaign efforts for next month's election.

“We have experienced a sophisticated and large-scale cyber attack on Labour digital platforms,” the party, led by veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, said in a statement.

"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."

It said that some campaign activities were slowed but they were restored early Tuesday and were now back to normal.

Attack ‘Very Serious’

Labour said it had reported the incident to the National Cyber Security Centre, a part of intelligence agency GCHQ which monitors and works to protect security systems.

The attempted hack came against lingering concern about the potential for outside interference in the general election, with major parties relying increasing on digital messaging.

Corbyn said later in a speech on the campaign trail in Blackpool, northwest England, that the attack, which happened on Monday, was "very serious", even if it ultimately failed.

“But if this is a sign to come in this election, I feel very nervous about it all,” he told supporters.

"Because a cyber attack against a political party in an election is suspicious and something one is very worried about."

(Published in an arrangement with PTI.)