Labour sticks to ‘basic’ $20 cyber defence after attacks, emails show

Britain's opposition Labour Party was using a $20-a-month "basic security" service to protect its website when hackers attempted to force it offline last week and temporarily slowed down online campaigning, according to internal emails seen by Reuters.
Such entry-level protection is not recommended for large organisations at high risk of cyber-attacks, but the messages show Labour has since decided against upgrading to an increased security package on grounds of cost.
Labour and Britain's governing Conservative Party were hit by back-to-back cyber-attacks last week, just days into an election campaign security officials have warned could be disrupted by foreign hackers.
Labour uses the services of cybersecurity firm Cloudflare to help protect its website from attacks, party emails show, but only the level the company recommends for "professional websites, blogs, and portfolios requiring basic security."
After the attacks, the party considered upgrading to the increased security measures used by large organisations to help ensure their websites stay online, but decided the $60,000 annual cost was unjustifiable, according to the emails.
While the lower-tier security package protected the Labour site from major damage, it may not be enough if the party is hit by more sophisticated attacks, said a person with knowledge of the matter.
In a separate message, Labour's head of technology warned that the party could be at increased risk of cyber-attacks on the days of two televised election debates and its upcoming manifesto launch.
A Labour party spokesman declined to comment. Cloudflare did not respond to a request for comment.
A Conservative Party spokeswoman did not respond directly to questions about the type of website defences used by the party.
"We have the appropriate security measures in place to protect the party's IT and web infrastructure so were not disrupted in the recent incident," she said.
Election
The country's security agencies have warned that Russia and other countries may attempt to disrupt the election with cyber-attacks or divisive political messages on social media, a charge Moscow denies.
Officials say initial investigations have found nothing to link the attacks on Labour and the Conservatives to a foreign state.
The attackers used a common and relatively simple technique to attempt to force the parties' web services offline by flooding them with traffic.
Cloudflare says its services help defend against so-called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by filtering out malicious website requests and absorbing the additional traffic.
Both Labour and the Conservatives have provided data to the police and Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of the GCHQ signals intelligence agency, to help investigate the attacks, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The NCSC said analysis was ongoing following last week's attacks but declined to comment on specific defences used by individual political parties.
"We are confident that the Labour party took the necessary steps to deal with the attack. The attack was not successful," an NCSC spokeswoman said, adding that major parties have been briefed on how to guard against future DDoS attacks.
source teiss
Industry: Cyber Security

Latest Jobs
-
- Sailpoint IIQ Consultant
- London
- Up to £75,000
-
SailPoint IIQ consultant- London We are looking for a strong SailPoint IIQ consultant to work for this global enterprise, in this position you will be the lead consultant in regard to the IAM and PAM tools Duties include Responsible for designing, developing, testing, implementing, and integrating IAM (SailPoint) systems and solutions. Assessing requirements for Identity and Access Management solutions to meet stakeholders needs. Provide support for production IAM infrastructure systems and processes. Ensures the maintenance, patching, operating, and monitoring of IAM systems. Ensures senior management and staff are informed of any changes and updates in a timely manner. Experience with Maintaining and supporting SailPoint IIQ Assessing requirements for Privilege Access Management solutions to meet stakeholders needs We are looking for someone with the following experience SailPoint IIQ experience Expertise working with SailPoint Identity IQ platform - Access Lifecycle Management, Certifications, Role Management Expertise in onboarding applications with various connectors like Active Directory, JDBC, SCIM 2.0, Azure Active Directory Expertise in developing APIs (SCIM, REST) leveraging Java based developmentExperience of Privileged Access Management concepts and use cases Unfortunatly we are unable to provide sponsorship for this opportunity, therefore applications will need to be able to work in the UK
-
- SailPoint Consultant- Netherland-
- Netherlands
- upto €700 per day
-
We are looking for a highly skilled SailPoint IIQ Consultant to work on a major deployment project. The ideal candidate will have experience with all aspects of SailPoint IIQ, including development, configuration, and administration. They will also be able to work independently and as part of a team to deliver high-quality results. · Responsibilities · Develop and configure Sailpoint IIQ solutions · Integrate SailPoint IIQ with other systems · Support SailPoint IIQ deployments · Provide technical support to users If you are a highly skilled SailPoint IIQ consultant who is looking for their next project, we encourage you to apply. look forward to hearing from you!
-
- Lead CyberArk deployment Consultant
- London
- Upto £80,000 plus benefits
-
CyberArk Consultant is needed to be responsible for leading the deployment of CyberArk solutions for this expanding IT services business, You will work with customer both pre and post sales, getting involved in CyberArk Solution Design, helping to create CyberArk Strategic Roadmaps, on-boarding accounts, product and process integration into the CyberArk Solution and Proviso of Installation and technical Documentation. We are looking for this individual to have experience in: Installation of CyberArk PAS for V11.X and V12.X (Vault, DR Vault, Central Policy Manager and Password Vault Web Access) Upgrade of CyberArk from V9 and V10 (Vault, DR Vault, Central Policy Manager and Password Vault Web Access) Installation and Upgrade of Privilege Session Manager and Privilege Session Manager Proxy As some of your client will be government site, all individual will need to be put through SC clearance, therefore you must be eligible to receive this and happy to be put through(With a British Citizen or to have lived in the UK for the past 5 years) We are unable to provide work visa sponsorship for this opportunity
-
- Senior Business Analyst - Outside IR35 Contract, SC Clearance Required, London
- London
- £400 per day outside IR35
-
Senior Business Analyst - Outside IR35 Contract, SC Clearance Required, Based in London Project- to engage with colleagues and stakeholders to investigate and model business functions, processes, information flows and data structures, using a range of business analysis techniques. • You will translate the solution to the business problem into detailed requirements by creating user stories and well-defined acceptance criteria. • Elicit end-to-end business requirements for a live cross-government service • Working across the Government departments to bring together varied business and operational outcomes to form a holistic overall set of service requirements Current SC clearance is required. As is the ability to travel to London.