UK defense secretary’s phone number found online after Burnham hit by texting scam
Wes Streeting is one of three Cabinet ministers whose numbers showed up in a POLITICO search.
Three Cabinet ministers from the U.K., including Defense Secretary Wes Streeting, have had their personal mobile phone numbers published online, according to POLITICO. The disclosure occurred following reports that Prime Minister Andy Burnham had been targeted by a texting scam, where he engaged with messages from someone pretending to be Susie Wiles, Donald Trump's White House chief of staff.
After realizing the contact was illegitimate, Burnham ended the conversation. The publication of the ministers' numbers has since been removed, and officials are working to delete the other two. Ministers are provided with secure government devices for their official communications, and are expected to use those for non-personal matters as well.
A government spokesperson affirmed that the government has robust security procedures in place to safeguard sensitive information. However, Prerana Joshi, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, expressed concern over the risks associated with having Cabinet ministers' direct phone numbers publicly available.
She warned that such numbers could be spoofed and exploited by cybercriminals. Downing Street declined to comment on the revelation that Burnham had exchanged messages with the impersonator, citing national security reasons. A source familiar with the communications stated that a few messages were exchanged, but they were deemed "of no significance."
It remains unclear how the fraudster obtained Burnham's number, as POLITICO was unable to locate it in the public domain.
Written by urgent.news from Politico EU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
