A cyber attack has recently impacted the Scottish Parliament. MSPs and their staff have been warned that they will be unlikely to be able to access their email accounts due to hackers launching a “brute force” cyber attack in an attempt to gain their passwords.

A brute force attack is a cyber attack that involves trying to use as many iterations or possibilities as possible to guess a password. Parliament chief executive Sir Paul Grice said that Parliament’s cyber systems were still under attack but there was no evidence that any systems had been breached: “At this point there is no evidence to suggest that the attack has breached our defences and our IT systems continue to be fully operational.” He went on to add that: “Staff from the BIT (Business Information Technology) Office are working closely with the NCSC and our suppliers to put in place additional security measures to continue to contain the incident and mitigate against any future attacks.”

It is not yet known which country the cyber attack originates from. It is believed, however, to be similar to the cyber attack launched on MPs earlier in June.