2017 Westminster data breach
The 2017 Westminster data breach occurred on 23 June 2017, when an unauthorised attempt was made to gain access to email accounts belonging to a number of politicians at the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament. Whitehall officials have claimed that Iran was behind the attack. The incident was followed by an attempt to hack accounts belonging to politicians at the Scottish Parliament in August 2017. Events Parliamentarians were told about the cyberattack on the evening of 23 June, and it was made public knowledge the following day by Chris Rennard, a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords who posted a request on social media asking people needing to contact him urgently to do so via text message. Remote access to politicians email accounts was disabled. However, a spokesperson for the House of Commons said that this was a precautionary measure to protect security rather than a consequence of the cyberattack itself. The matter is being investigated by the National Cyber Security Centre with assistance from the National Crime Agency. Westminster authorities described the attack as "sustained and determined", and follows media reports that the email passwords of government ministers had been obtained by hackers and were being sold