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Philip Toscano-Heighton/PA Wire

'A warning to everyone': The UK Parliament has been hit by a cyber attack

The House of Commons confirmed that a number of “unauthorised attempts” to access MPs emails were made.

Updated 6.22pm

THE EMAIL SYSTEMS of the UK Houses of Parliament are under cyber attack.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the House of Commons said that “unauthorised attempts to access parliamentary user accounts” had been discovered.

“We are continuing to investigate this incident and take further measures to secure the computer network, liaising with the National Cyber Security Centre,” they said.

We have systems in place to protect member and staff accounts and are taking the necessary steps to protect our systems.

Lib Dem peer Chris Rennard said that the cyber security attack had meant MPs were unable to remotely access their emails.

lib dem Chris Rennard / Twitter Chris Rennard / Twitter / Twitter

The National Crime Agency said it was “aware of a possible cyber incident affecting parliament”.

International Trade Minister Liam Fox told ITV News said it was a “warning to everyone we need more security and better passwords”.

Fox also told the BBC: “We know that our public services are attacked so it is not at all surprising that there should be an attempt to hack into parliamentary emails”.

Last month, the UK’s National Health Service was among a number of global targets in an international cyber attack.

The state-run NHS declared a “major incident” after the cyber attacks, which prompted some hospitals to divert ambulances and scrap operations.

With reporting from AFP

Read: 5,000 cyber-attacks were attempted against one Irish hospital in just 24 hours

Read: HSE remains cut off from external networks as finger points to North Korea over cyber attack

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8 Comments
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    Mute winston smith
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    Jun 24th 2017, 5:03 PM

    Doubt if that’ll have much impact…old bags of hot air waffling on don’t require much technology!

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Jun 24th 2017, 5:47 PM

    Seriously Russian or not these people want to undermine democracies for their own means.

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Jun 25th 2017, 2:06 AM

    @Deborah Behan: Russia gets the blame for China, Ukraine and North Korea, it is crazy.

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    Mute marty johnbann
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    Jun 24th 2017, 5:22 PM

    Just for a second I though it got hit by something else. Well maybe next time

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    Mute iohanx
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    Jun 24th 2017, 5:11 PM

    Nonsense. Possible attempt to change current news cycle. Hack hackers have been around for decades now. An opinion.

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    Mute Enda
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    Jun 24th 2017, 5:04 PM

    Good work Sean

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    Mute Thaddus T Sawballs
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    Jun 24th 2017, 11:23 PM

    That’s the worst of watching too much porn
    Err so daisy chain says

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Jun 25th 2017, 2:07 AM

    @Thaddus T Sawballs: African dictators or Princes I bet lol.

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