An email passed to HuffPost UK said hackers were “carrying out a sustained and determined attack on all Parliamentary user accounts in attempt to identify weak passwords.”
As TechTarget explains it, brute force cracking "is a trial and error method used by application programs to decode encrypted data such as passwords or Data Encryption Standard (DES) keys, through exhaustive effort (using brute force) rather than employing intellectual strategies."
MSSP Alert will update this coverage as more information becomes available.