After Johnson, foreign secretary Raab's number also found online

Amid the security services controversy over the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s number being available online, now a user of publication The Guardian has discovered that the country’s foreign minister’s number has also been available online for the last 11 years.

Dominic Raab’s number is believed to have been online for at least 11 years, before Raab became an MP in 2010, till date. The number remained online even when he became the foreign secretary, first secretary of state – de facto deputy prime minister, in 2019.

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Raab who has previously warned of rogue states and the cybersecurity threats they pose had a lotof his personal information displayed on the page continuing his number. Now, the number along with the foreign minister’s personal details have been removed.

In April, a controversy took the UK by storm when it emerged that Boris Johnson’s personal mobile had been available online for 15 years and that anybody can access it off the bottom of a press release. This raised questions over the confidentiality of senior politicians’ contact details and why it was not thoroughly investigated.

Former security advisor Peter Ricketts says this second breach involving Raab’s number showed more attention must be paid to online security.

“The wide availability of Mr Raab’s personal phone number must increase the risk that other states, or even criminal gangs, have been able to eavesdrop on his calls,”

“It also means that anyone who happens to have had his phone number … is able to lobby the foreign secretary, bypassing the official channels which everyone else has to use. Anyone taking on a role as sensitive as this should in their own interests pay as much attention to online as to physical security,”he added.

Calling for an investigation, shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, said, “This is a staggering lapse in security from a foreign secretary who, only last month, was lecturing NATOallies about the cybersecurity threat posed by authoritarian regimes.

“It is typical of the government’s approach that when it comes to national security and defending democracy they say one thing but do another. This should be the subject of an investigation. Both the prime minister and foreign secretary have failed to protect their own phones. How can we be assured they aren’t as careless with sensitive intelligence and diplomatic cables too?”

In a statement, the government said that it has also requested the removal of the web page containing Raab’s details.