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British parliament's email system hit by cyber attack

The attack comes days after reports that Russian hackers had put passwords belonging to senior ministers, ambassadors and senior police officers up for sale online.

<p>People relax in the hot weather on Parliament Square, opposite the Houses of Parliament in central London on June 21, 2017. E</p>

Hackers hit the email system of the British Parliament in an apparent attempt to break into the accounts of hundreds of MPs, Lords and their staffs, according to a House of Commons spokesperson.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Rennard also confirmed the attack on Twitter.

The attack prompted security services to shut down access to anyone outside the Palace of Westminster, where the two houses of Parliament meet.

A spokesperson for the House of Commons said "unauthorized attempts" were made to gain access to parliamentary email account, The Independent reported.

The spokesperson said Parliament was working with the National Cyber Security Centre to secure the computer network investigate the incident.

Members of the House of Commons and Lords were informed of the cyberattack Friday night and said they were unable to gain access to their emails on Saturday, The Telegraph reported. It is unclear the exact number of lawmakers affected.

An email sent to all users of a parliamentary address alerting them to the intrusion said “unusual activity and evidence of an attempted cyber attack” had been discovered, Huffington Post UK reported.

“Closer investigation by our team confirmed that hackers were carrying out a sustained and determined attack on all parliamentary user accounts in attempt to identify weak passwords,” the security message said, according to the Huffington Post UK.

The attack comes days after reports that Russian hackers had put passwords belonging to senior ministers, ambassadors and senior police officers up for sale online.

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