This is why we're here...

Cyber criminals are targeting the Public and Commercial and Services union's website as it prepares for one of its most important annual conferences in its history.

The union has announced today (16) that, as delegates begin to gather in Brighton, is facing a sustained and well-organised denial-of-service attack that has seriously affected access to the site.

The attack started on Wednesday 11 May and has meant the website has at times struggled to cope with average hourly traffic 1,000 times greater than normal.

The union says its main priority is to fix the problem so that its members and other visitors can access information about its campaign for the alternative to the government's cuts and updates from its annual conference which opens on Wednesday (18).

Delegates to the conference in Brighton will be asked to back a national strike ballot over cuts to jobs, pensions and pay, and for the union to "work with other trade unions to co-ordinate the action for maximum impact".

The DoS attack means the site is being overwhelmed by 'false' traffic from computers programmed to repeatedly try to access pages. This has had no effect on the security of data held on sections of the website.

The union continues to work with its web development company Pixl8 to thwart the attacks and ensure normal service is resumed as soon as possible. In the meantime it is directing members and site visitors to Facebook and Twitter for updates.

Alex Skinner, managing director of Pixl8, said "DoS attacks remain a continual threat to those operating websites. The challenge is putting measures in place that ensure continual availability of a website while minimising the impact to legitimate users. We have seen an increase in this type of activity in recent months and this particular attack is one of the largest we have experienced."

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This is a clear attempt to undermine our union at what is a critical time. Whoever is doing it might succeed in slowing our website down for a few days but they will not silence our members who are determined to fight the government's unfair and unnecessary cuts.

"We are doing everything we can to ensure normal service is resumed as soon as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused by this illegal and unprovoked attack."
Try the PCS website http://www.pcs.org.uk/