Phone numbers of British ministers leaked
PHONE numbers and other personal details of senior ministers from Britain’s Conservative party were made public by an app security flaw on Saturday, including those of top Brexiteers Michael Gove and Boris Johnson.
Severa l top MPs reportedly received nuisance ca lls af ter t heir profiles were accessed on the officia l mobile application for the annual part y conference, which k icks off over the weekend.
The security breach saw members of the public able to enter the profiles using just the politicians’ email addresses – easily available online – to view and edit the data stored within.
Former foreign secretary Johnson had his profile picture briefly swapped for pornography and his job title changed to an profane insult, according to several Twitter users.
Meanwhile Environment Secretar y Gove’s picture was changed to one of media t ycoon Rupert Murdoch, his former employer when he was a journa list.
Among the first to report the flaw was Dawn Foster, a columnist for the Guardian daily.
“The Tory conference app allows you to log in as other people and view their contact details just with their email address, no emailed security links, and post comments as them,” she wrote on Twitter, using a colloquial name for the party.
“They’ve essentially made every journalist, politician and attendee’s mobile number public. Fantastic.”
A Conser vative part y spokesperson apologised for t he breach, say ing t he technica l issue had “been resolved and the app is now functioning securely”.
Britain’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), said it was investigating the data breach related to the app, which was developed by an Australian firm called Crown Comms.
The opposition Labour Part y said the blunder showed the ruling part y could not be trusted i n matters of securit y.
“They can’t even build a conference app that keeps the data of their members, MPs and others attending safe and secure,” said shadow cabinet office minister Jon Trickett.