GETTY Cybercrooks managed to infiltrate the secure Parliament network

Cybercrooks hacked into parliament's secure network and compromise several computers, The Times has claimed. The hackers unearthed confidential documents relating to MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Chi Onwurah – the shadow digital minister – and her employees. The hack is the first report of a successful cyberattack against the secure parliament network, which is used internally used government employees.

It comes amid fears hackers are winning the cyberarms race against public bodies and companies, like Talk Talk – which was successfully hacked earlier this month with devastating consequences. According to The Times report, the attackers used a cryptolocker virus to lock confidential files from a shared drive on the parliament network. Once locked, the virus displayed a random note to the MP with a telephone number and instructs to pay a ransom to unlock the sensitive files. The MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central admitted the virus spread fast – but was stopped before it managed to attack any files containing sensitive data about constituents.

GETTY The hack is the first report of a successful cyberattack against the secure parliament network

The Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) seized all of the Ms Onwurah's computers and cut off her connection to shared drive. Her hard drives were then wiped and replaced, The Times confirmed. "It's important that everyone realises how susceptible we all are to theses attacks," Ms Onwurah said. "There are reports that foreign intelligence agencies have targeted MPs' computers, so the time has come to find out how well we are being protected, especially now we know what cyberattackers can do."

TWITTER • IG MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Chi Onwurah was held to ransom by the hackers