MP's website suffers 'deliberate' cyber attack

Former Conservative cabinet minister Sir David Davis says 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.

Davis told the BBC he believed the attack, which began on Thursday, was "sustained and deliberate". He said his website was back online by Tuesday evening.

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

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

"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.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority provides funding to MPs to cover website costs if they comply with specific conditions.

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."

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