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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| General election 2019: 'Cyber-attack' on Labour Party digital platforms | General election 2019: 'Cyber-attack' on Labour Party digital platforms |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| The Labour Party says there has been a "sophisticated and large-scale cyber-attack" on its digital platforms. | The Labour Party says there has been a "sophisticated and large-scale cyber-attack" on its digital platforms. |
| Labour said the attack "failed" because of the party's "robust" security system and no data breach had occurred. | |
| The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack floods a computer server with traffic to try to take it offline. | |
| A Labour source told the BBC "tens of millions of attacks - mostly originating from Russia and Brazil" had been detected. | |
| DDoS attacks direct huge amounts of internet traffic at a target in an effort to overwhelm computer servers, causing their software to crash. | |
| They are often carried out via a network of hijacked computers - located around the world - and other internet-connected devices known as a botnet. | |
| The owners of which may be unaware their equipment is involved. | |
| DDoS attacks are not normally recognised as being a hack as they do not involve breaking into a target's systems to insert malware. | |
| They can vary in sophistication and size, and are sometimes used as a diversionary tactic to carry out a more damaging attack under the radar. | |
| Several companies provide services to repel DDoS attacks, but they can be costly. | |
| In a letter sent to Labour campaigners, Niall Sookoo, the party's executive director of elections and campaigns, said: "Yesterday afternoon 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. | In a letter sent to Labour campaigners, Niall Sookoo, the party's executive director of elections and campaigns, said: "Yesterday afternoon 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 and the integrity of all our platforms and data was maintained. | "Every single one of these attempts failed due to our robust security systems and the integrity of all our platforms and data was maintained. |
| "I would I like to pay tribute to all the teams at Labour HQ who identified this risk and acted quickly to protect us." | "I would I like to pay tribute to all the teams at Labour HQ who identified this risk and acted quickly to protect us." |
| The Labour Party spokeswoman said: "We have experienced a sophisticated and large-scale cyber-attack on Labour digital platforms. | The Labour Party spokeswoman 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." | "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 had been reported to the National Cyber Security Centre, she said. | |
| Security procedures had "slowed down" some election campaign activities, she added, but they were now "back up to full speed". |