LONDON, Sept 30 — Phone numbers and other personal details of senior ministers from Britain’s Conservative party were made public by an app security flaw yesterday, including those of top Brexiteers Michael Gove and Boris Johnson.
Several top MPs reportedly received nuisance calls after their profiles were accessed on the official mobile application for the annual party conference, which kicks off this weekend.
The security breach saw members of the public able to enter the politicians’ profiles using just their email address — a point of contact widely 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 a profane insult, according to several Twitter users.
Meanwhile Environment Secretary Gove’s picture was changed to one of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, his former employer when he was a journalist.
Among the first to report the flaw was Dawn Foster, a columnist for daily The Guardian. — AFP
