Johnson's mobile number was publicly available on a press release.
The personal mobile number of former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was publicly available on the internet for 15 years.
The prime minister's number was attached to the bottom of a 2006 press release that was published when he was the shadow education minister, according to Business Insider.
The press release invited readers to contact Johnson "directly" on his House of Commons landline or on his personal number.
The Times reported that a welfare claimant was able to contact Johnson personally and ask for help with a benefit claim after a friend gave them the prime minister's number.
Johnson’s mobile number now redirects to an automated message saying: "This person's phone is switched off. Please try later or send a text."
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Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
