UK Labour Party targeted in large-scale cyber attack ahead of election

• Britain's security services have warned about the risk of cyber-attacks by Russia and other countries.
• Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre was not immediately available for comment.
• Britain goes to the polls on Dec. 12 in an election called by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to try to break the Brexit deadlock in parliament.

(LONDON) Britain's opposition Labour Party said on Tuesday it was subject to a large-scale cyber attack on its digital platforms but that it was confident no data breach occurred just weeks before a national election.

A spokesman for the party said Labour had reported the attack to the National Cyber Security Centre and that while the attack had "slowed down some of our campaign activities", they had been restored earlier on Tuesday.

Britain's security services have warned about the risk of cyber-attacks by Russia and other countries, including during elections, when both the country's main parties launch online campaigns to target their messages to the voting public.

"We have experienced a sophisticated and large scale cyber attack on Labour digital platforms," the spokesman said in a statement.

"We took swift action and these attempts failed due to our robust security systems. The integrity of all our platforms was maintained and we are confident that no data breach occurred."

Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, part of the country's GCHQ signals intelligence agency, was not immediately available for comment.

Britain goes to the polls on Dec. 12 in an election called by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to try to break the Brexit deadlock in parliament, more than three years since the country voted to leave the European Union.