Ceredigion County Council

Electoral Commission cyber-attack (statement 8 August 2023)

It has come to our attention today that the Electoral Commission has been the subject of a complex cyber-attack.

Public Notification

As part of the attack, hostile actors were able to access reference copies of the electoral registers, held by the Commission for research purposes and to enable permissibility checks on political donations. The registers held at the time of the cyber-attack include the name and address of anyone in the UK who was registered to vote between 2014 and 2022, as well as the names of those registered as overseas voters. The registers did not include the details of those registered anonymously. The Commission’s email system was also accessible during the attack.

The Electoral Commission has published an FAQ document which may answer some of your concerns. Members of the public and electors can also contact the Commission directly by using this webform and selecting the title ‘Cyber-attack’.

We would like to reassure members of the public that this incident is entirely external to Ceredigion County Council and that our systems are unaffected.