Opposition says minister now responsible in hacking case

Labour yesterday said that Investments Minister Austin Gatt should now assume responsibility for the Mitts hacking debacle after turning down the resignation of its board.

The statement comes after Dr Gatt confirmed in Parliament last Wednesday that user names and passwords belonging to some 20,000 users of the government IT system had been copied by hackers on September 4.

The attack, suspected to have been made through the system at Malta's Embassy in Cairo, rattled the government's IT company, which has been at the centre of an uncomfortable police investigation since.

In Parliament Dr Gatt said that the Mitts board members had offered their resignation, which he refused since it emerged that the shortcomings were not the result of a policy they had adopted but due to the application of procedures and systems.

In previous years, the minister said, the board had consistently approved all investments requested by the management which had to do with the security and operations of Mitts.

But in a statement yesterday Opposition leader Joseph Muscat and IT spokesman Chris Cardona stressed that while the board had done the correct thing by offering its resignation, now that he had refused it, the minister had to shoulder the full responsibility for what had happened and what might happen in this or related cases.

The statement also called for a serious inquiry into the case. The ministry reacted strongly to the latter point, saying that this call for an inquiry showed lack of confidence on the part of the opposition in the ongoing police investigation.

The ministry also pointed out that Dr Muscat had previously called for a magisterial inquiry into the case but was now calling for an inquiry, adding that while it was not against an inquiry, it respected the autonomy of the police to investigate every case and arraign people, if required.

The government said it would therefore wait for the outcome of the police investigation before deciding whether an inquiry should be held in terms of the Inquiries Act.

But the ministry added that it was not prepared to hold an inquiry into security matters, which by their nature are confidential, "just to satisfy the Opposition Leader".