14 DAY TRIAL // According to reports from British newspapers, a ransomware infection managed to infect for the first time the UK Parliament's internal computer network, the Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS).
The incident occurred in May 2015 and infected the computers used by Chi Onwurah, MP (Member of Parliament) for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, current Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, and also Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Besides infecting Mrs. Onwurah's computer, the ransomware also spread to a shared drive used by the PDS.
All files were cryptographically encrypted, and in the usual fashion, a ransom note was also displayed.
The Parliament's system administrators cut off Mrs. Onwurah's access to the network to contain the infection, and later wiped and replaced any affected hard drives. The MP eventually confirmed to the media that the ransomware did not compromise files containing information about constituents.
The Parliament's computer network caters to around 8,500 users, with titles ranging from MPs to lords, ministers, and their staff. This is the first recorded incident when the PDS has been breached and infected with malware.
Some were quick to blame the cyber-attack on advanced persistence threats (APTs), but ransomware is usually not in the arsenal of politically driven hackers. This is because ransomware infections attract a lot of attention while APT groups like to work in the shadows, stealing user information without alerting the victim of their presence in any way.