MP's website shut down in suspected cyber attack

Former Conservative cabinet minister Sir David Davis said his website had to be shut down after a suspected cyber attack.

The Goole and Pocklington MP told the House of Commons on Monday evening his website "was hit with 142 million requests, consuming nearly 800 gigabytes (GB) of data" and claimed much of the traffic was "traceable to China".

"Malicious links were inserted, redirecting users to South East Asian gambling websites – I guess it could be worse. We took it down immediately," he said.

At 09:30 BST on Tuesday, the website was still down with a message reading: "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute."

The suspected cyber attack on Davis's Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority-backed (IPSA) website began on Thursday.

He told the Commons: "Last Thursday, my IPSA-provided website was compromised.

"Malicious links were inserted, redirecting users to South East Asian gambling websites – I guess it could be worse.

"We took it down immediately.

"It was restored but then came under sustained distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, traceable to China.

"In just 24 hours, the site was hit with 142 million requests, consuming nearly 800GB of data.

"This is not a minor nuisance, it's a direct interference with a Member of Parliament carrying out his duties."

Distributed denial of service attacks work by flooding a website or online service with internet traffic in an attempt to throw it offline or make it inaccessible.

Deputy speaker Nus Ghani told MPs: "I do not think it would be appropriate to discuss the details publicly about preventative action and how members are supported to protect themselves against these kinds of cyber threats.

"If members would like security advice on how to make personal accounts and devices more resilient, they should contact PSD (Parliamentary Security Department).

"For matters related to parliamentary accounts and equipment, members should contact PDS through the PDS service desk."

Davis has been approached by the BBC for comment.

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