The Communications Ministry said yesterday a police investigation was under way over a suspected breach of internal policies after a number of government e-mails were allegedly hacked by employees of the government's IT company.

In a brief statement issued in reply to questions by The Times, the ministry said that "it considered comments prior to the conclusion of the investigation as uncalled for and possibly prejudicial to the investigation". It said it will only comment "once the police assured it that comments will not prejudice the investigation".

The electronic and print media has reported that the suspect employees had allegedly managed to access sensitive information from government computers by accessing passwords of gov.mt e-mail addresses that are stored on a server. As a result of this incident, government employees were asked to change their password, the media reports said.

The ministry said last week that on September 7, Malta Information Technology and Training Services Ltd (MITTS), a state-owned company that manages the government's internet network, asked the Police Commissioner to investigate a suspected breach of internal policies and procedures by one or more technical members of its staff.

It said the police had interviewed a number of MITTS employees to help them in their investigation. As a result of the police investigations, three employees are out on forced leave pending investigations.