Forced “password upgrade” behind latest Parliamentary computer glitch.

The Department of Parliamentary Services had defended the reliability of its IT network, despite conceding there were five “major incidents” in the past year that caused system downtime.

One of the issues reportedly involved an urgent forced reset of passwords during the height of the Queensland floods that caused log-in issues for parliamentarians working remotely.

Assistant secretary David Kenny blamed the “password upgrade” on “some security issues” experienced on the parliamentary network.

“It was considered necessary to react to security concerns we had on the network at the time,” he said, without going into details.

“The way it was done – and it was a surprise to me as well – had unintended consequences for people using the network remotely.

“They [users] had to go and find an electorate office and physically plug into the network to make the [password] change.

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