Mita employee fails security check

An employee at government’s IT agency failed a security check after background screening of more than 300 employees was carried out by the Security Service, a report has revealed.

According to the Security Committee’s annual report, in 2009, Malta Information Technology Agency started a process of security clearance for employees that worked in areas considered to be sensitive such as government networks.

Security screening is performed by the Security Service and includes checks on ministries’ private secretariat employees. All the 49 personnel submitted for screening by ministries were recommended.

The report does not say whether the Mita employee had his job terminated or was transferred to a less sensitive area.

It is unclear whether Mita’s decision to start security checks was linked to the hacking incident in March 2009 when a government server where the user names and passwords of embassy personnel were stored was attacked.

Mita had said no data was extracted in the attack but in a similar incident six months earlier over 20,000 government were believed to have been compromised in an internet attack that was traced back to the Maltese Embassy in Cairo.

The Security Committee overseas the work of the Security Service and the annual report was tabled in Parliament this week. It gives a brief analysis of the agency’s work and what it believes are the threats to Malta’s security.

The Security Service’s prime focus was drug trafficking, providing the police and other law enforcement agencies with sensitive information. However, it was also involved in collaboration with foreign agencies on terrorism-related matters.

Islamic radicalism is identified as one of the threats and is linked to terrorism.

The report says that individuals with “connections to Islamic radicalism passed through Malta” and these people could have been helped by foreigners living in Malta.

On illegal immigration, the report says that migration patterns seem to have shifted toward the Iberian Peninsula after Libya cracked down on human trafficking networks.

However, Spain has not reported any increase in immigrants from the Horn of Africa, which could mean that these are still congregating in Libya.

The Security Service had advised the government not to accept prisoners released by the US from Guantanamo Bay because of the high security risk. However, given the principle of free movement of people in the Schengen zone, the agency said the possibility existed that one of these people could come to Malta.

On this basis, an agreement was reached between various security agencies to keep each other informed of the movement of any of these former detainees suspected of having been Al Qaeda sympthatisers.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com