A security flaw in the U.K. Conservative Partys smartphone app exposed the phone numbers and other personal information of hundreds of its members, including top ministers, the day before the partys annual conference in Birmingham.
The technical snafu provides a difficult start for a conference where U.K. Prime Minister and her Tory colleagues will discuss the future of the party in the face of intense fracturing over the governments Brexit strategy.
The glitch, which has since been fixed, allowed anyone to log into the app and view or manipulate the personal information of registered attendees using their email address, The Independent reported. It also exposed the information of journalists and other delegates slated to attend the conference.
The app “allows you to login as other people and view their contact details just with their email address, no emailed security links, and post comments as them,” Guardian columnist Dawn Foster tweeted and shared a screenshot of the profile of MP and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
The security issues follow an embarrassing display at last years conference when the letters began falling off the backdrop of the stage during Mays speech.
“Last year the letters fell off the wall. Before Tory Conference even begins this year there is an amateur security lapse of data, no wonder Brexit is going so badly,” Nigel Farage, former leader of the U.K. Independence Party, tweeted.
The app was designed by Australia-based company CrowdComms. The Conservative Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
