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Jersey's new digital vaccine passport platform was forced to close just hours after launching due to security concerns.
Government workers and Microsoft were said to be "urgently" working on a solution to what has been described as an "exploit" with privacy controls, and continued overnight.
There is no sign of a data leak. The issue was that anyone with the date of birth and social security number of another islander would be able to access their vaccine certificates.
A Government spokesperson said last night: “We have been made aware of an exploit with the privacy controls of our Digital COVID Status Certificate platform.
“This raises a security flaw and so we have closed the platform.
“Officers and Microsoft are urgently looking into this and an update will be given once a solution has been found.”
Pictured: How the site currently looks to anyone attempting to access it.
In an update this morning, they added: “Officials have been working through the night with Microsoft to investigate the system flaw raised yesterday evening.
“This flaw does not lie with Yoti, but is rather a loophole with the platform that would allow someone with the date of birth and social security number of another Islanders to access their vaccine certificates.
“We are continuing to work with Microsoft to close this loophole and make the platform available again.”
The platform for islanders to access new digital covid status certificates that could be used within England, Scotland and Wales, and in line with France's Pass Sanitaire scheme, launched earlier yesterday evening.
The digital record aimed to show islanders' full vaccination record, accompanied by QR codes that are valid for 30 days evidencing first and second vaccine doses. QR codes evidencing a booster vaccine are also expected to become available once they are developed by NHSx.
To access the certificates, islanders had to be registered to Yoti and have a OneGov account.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: We've been made aware of an exploit with the privacy controls of our Digital COVID Status Certificate. This raises a security flaw and we've closed the platform. Officers and Microsoft are urgently looking into it. An update will be given once there's a solution https://t.co/DGsuNcjh1c
— Government of Jersey (@GovJersey) October 20, 2021
Chief Minister Senator John Le Fondré said he hoped that Jersey's QR codes would be able to be used for travel in the rest of Europe in the "near future", once the UK has joined the EU Digital Covid Certificate Gateway.
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