UK Labour Party announce data breach after being informed of ransomware attack

On Wednesday 3rd of November 2021, the Labour Party, a political party in the United Kingdom released a statement that revealed on 29th October 2021, they were contacted by a third party about a cyber incident that had resulted in a large volume of the Party’s data being made inaccessible.
“We were informed of the cyber incident by the third party. The third party told us that the incident had resulted in a significant quantity of Party data being rendered inaccessible on their systems.” – Labour Party.

Soon after the Party was made aware of the incident, they immediately report the incident to the relevant authorities in the UK, including National Crime Agency (NCA), National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and brought in third-party experts to help understand the full impact of the incident and how to resolve it.

Data involved in the incident included information provided to the Party by the Party’s members, registered and affiliated supporters and other individuals who have provided their information to the Party. While the incident is being investigated, the Labour Party has advised that anyone who has potentially been affected by this incident should be careful when answering any suspicious emails, phone calls, or text messages, and is highly advised to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) where possible.