An attempted breach of security on servers at Malta's embassies abroad has not been successful, a detailed analysis of the evidence and logs by a US security advisory firm has confirmed.

An unauthorised software was on Wednesday identified by the Information Security and Risk Management Department of the Malta IT Agency (Mita) on a server used for the storage of user credentials of personnel in Maltese embassies abroad.

The US firm confirmed that the attempted breach was not successful and the unauthorised programme did not manage to extract the usernames and passwords of the personnel in Malta’s embassies.

This was corroborated by the specialised technical staff of Mita, who, throughout the last 48 hours, analysed all available information.

"The conclusion of both exercises is identical and that is that the extraction was not successful," a Mita statement said.

It said that the infrastructural, technological and policy security framework of Mita was fundamental in the neutralisation of the impact of this attempted breach.

Moreover, a series of immediate preventive measures to eliminate further the risk exposure to the users as a consequence of this attempted breach, were adopted and executed within hours of the detection.

Although the risk of exposure was limited, one of the preventive measures taken was to ensure that all knowledge workers in the government change their password within the shortest possible time.

By 3 p.m. today, 67 percent of all users had made this change in a smooth process directed by Mita and efficiently coordinated by ministries' chief information officers and public sector entities. The service call centre was operating round the clock until the exercise was concluded.

In the meantime, activities at embassies were back to normal and all were fully connected and operational. No public-facing systems, such as e-government services, were affected and all government systems were operational. Mita said it was monitoring these systems to ensure minimum impact on services provided to the public.

Mita's board of directors thanked the management and operational teams "for their incessant commitment and exceptional skill demonstrated over the last 48 hours".

It also thanked ministries' chief information officers and public sector entities "for their invaluable collaboration" in the process.