450 Users Of Council’s Consultation Site Advised To Reset Passwords

Hundreds of users of the YourVoiceWrexham.net site, run by a third party company but used by Wrexham Council for consultations, have been advised to change their passwords.

Last week users were contacted to tell them that due to an error their own personal passwords had been sent to them as a reminder as a mistake.

No user information was shared beyond the single users, nor was there a hack or third party data loss, however such a move is viewed as poor practice in security terms.

Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Communities and Partnerships has said: “We sent a newsletter to each ‘yourvoicewrexham’ registered user, via the ‘People Matters Network’ system, to inform them about the latest consultations being carried out by Council. This email also included a reminder of their username and password for the yourvoicewrexham.net website.

“Whilst no individual’s personal information has been shared with any other users, and the only information sent to users is a reminder of their own personal password, we recognise that this is not good practice and we have taken all the necessary steps to rectify the problem.

“There are 450 users affected by this problem who we have contacted to apologise, inform them of the issue and advise on any action they may need to take. We have reset passwords for all registered users of ‘yourvoicewrexham’ and all new passwords created will be encrypted.

“We are also investigating this error with People Matters Network Ltd to ensure that this does not happen again.

“This is the only system that has been affected by the issue.”

Although the above mentions advice given to users affected without explaining it, Wrexham.com has been made aware that includes a note that reads: “…if you use the same username and password for any other accounts we advise that you change your password for them”.

The external supplier of the system is People Matters Network Ltd, and the website is run on behalf of Wrexham Council.