News › Rothamsted Research has been a victim of a cyber-attack

Rothamsted Research home page

28 May 2012

Rothamsted Research has been a victim of a cyber-attack and its website was down late Sunday afternoon until this morning

We believe this was a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack but it is unclear who was responsible.

The timing of the attack and the information we have seen on Twitter would suggest this attack relates to an experiment being conducted at Rothamsted Research to test wheat which has been genetically modified to repel greenfly and blackfly pests as a sustainable alternative to spraying pesticides. But this is not certain and could be coincidental.

A Rothamsted Spokesperson said "We have now rebooted our web server. We ask that whoever conducted this malicious attack to please respect our wish to give publicly funded scientific research information to the public".

They added "It is unfortunate that we have become a victim of a cyber-attack. This Cyber bullying simply prevents the public from having access to information on our wide-ranging publicly-funded research to develop environmentally sustainable solutions for food and energy production through our 168-year history."

Rothamsted Research Press Office

For further information, please contact Darren Hughes, Head of Communications, on +44 (0) 1582 763 133 ext 2673, email darren.hughes@rothamsted.ac.uk

Rothamsted is the longest running agricultural research station in the world, providing cutting-edge science and innovation for nearly 170 years. Our mission is to deliver the knowledge and new practices to increase crop productivity and quality and to develop environmentally sustainable solutions for food and energy production. Our strength lies in our integrated, multidisciplinary approach to research in plant and soil science.

Rothamsted Research receives strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) . It is the longest running agricultural research station in the world, developing environmentally sustainable solutions for food and energy production through science and innovation for nearly 170 years.

About BBSRC

BBSRC is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences and the largest single public funder of agriculture and food-related research.

Sponsored by Government, BBSRC's budget for 2011-12 is around £445M which it is investing in a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution to the quality of life in the UK and beyond and supports a number of important industrial stakeholders, including the agriculture, food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.

BBSRC provides institute strategic research grants to the following:

The Babraham Institute, Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (Aberystwyth University), Institute of Food Research, John Innes Centre, The Genome Analysis Centre, The Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh) and Rothamsted Research.

The Institutes conduct long-term, mission-oriented research using specialist facilities. They have strong interactions with industry, Government departments and other end-users of their research.

For more information see: www.bbsrc.ac.uk