UK MPs Finally Wake Up To The Cyber Age?

I know when something is brewing when my phone starts to buzz with "Number Withheld", and that it's the news media looking for leads.

And so it was the information that the UK Parliament was under a “sustained and determined” attack for the email accounts of MPs and associated staff. It started on Friday, and they targetted accounts which had weak passwords, and led to a lock-out on the affected accounts. Remote access to email systems was also disabled.

Basically, it was a Hydra account on the email server:

It seems that with the IPB (Investigatory Powers Bill) and the targeting of backdoors in cryptography that MPs are finally realised that we live in an Information Age ... and the days of the Industry Age are receding fast. Jeremy Corbyn even stepped on a Glastonbury stage and announced:

“I think [this] indicates just how vulnerable we are to cyber-attacks and our cyber-security. We need to be investing in cyber-protection – it is a huge issue. We all rely on computers, we all rely on emails, we all rely on digital records. You wouldn’t leave your building without importing documents under lock and key. A computer is just the same.”

The advice to MPs ... and one that we have all been receiving ... is to make sure that you use a strong password. Perhaps now they will pass laws which force companies to improve their password management system? There have even been reports of MPs user details and passwords being sold on the Dark Web.

Perhaps they can start with Virgin Media, who restrict passwords to between 8 and 10 characters, and accept weak passwords?

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