Hackers running "brute-force" cyber-attacks on Scottish parliament

Attack on Scottish parliament’s systems came weeks after hackers tried to access email accounts at Westminster

Scottish parliament has been hit by a “brute force” cyber-attack similar to the attack on email accounts at Westminster.

According to officials, on Tuesday, hackers were trying to access numerous email accounts by systematically and repeatedly trying to crack their passwords.



Holyrood’s chief executive Paul Grice, in an internal bulletin, told members of parliaments and staff that the parliament’s computer system is constantly under attack from “external forces”. “The parliament’s monitoring systems have identified that we are currently the subject of a brute force cyber-attack from external sources,” said Grice.

The chief executive urged staff and members to update their passwords using longer and stronger combinations of letters, numbers and special characters after Holyrood’s IT found too many passwords used by members weak and vulnerable.



The attack on the Scottish parliament’s computer systems came just weeks after hackers tried to access email accounts at Westminster.

“This attack appears to be targeting parliamentary IT accounts in a similar way to that which affected the Westminster parliament in June. Symptoms of the attack include account lockouts or failed log-ins.”



However, Grice claimed that the parliament’s IT systems are still fully operational as the attack was identified at an initial stage.

“The parliament’s robust cyber-security measures identified this attack at an early stage and the additional security measures which we have in readiness for such situations have already been invoked. Our IT systems remain fully operational.”

This article originally appeared on The Guardian

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