NEWS | Wednesday, 22 October 2008

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Law courts adopt caution, as Labour MPs shun MITTS accounts en masse

Raphael Vassallo
The fallout from the recent “Emailgate” national security failure – when amateur hackers succeeded in cracking into the government’s central IT system, compromising 20,000 email usernames and passwords in the process – is beginning to be felt, with various registered users expressing distrust in the internet service provided by the government’s IT agency, MITTS (Malta Information Technology and Technology Services).
Among the email passwords believed to have been stolen before 11 September are those of all members of the judiciary and their staff, with very clear implications for national security and the administration of justice.
A spokesman for the Maltese law courts was reluctant to comment directly on the issue, but it is evident from the one-line response to MaltaToday’s questions that the judiciary perceives the alleged hacking of MITTS to be a serious matter.
“The courts are adopting a cautious attitude towards the security aspect of using gov.mt email accounts, and cannot at this stage be divulged since, as you are well aware, internal investigations are currently underway within MITTS and also a Police investigation is being conducted,” the spokesman said.
“What will result out of these investigations will definitely impinge on the way security aspects will be dealt with.”
But while the law courts await the outcome of two separate investigations before taking steps to improve security, government continues sending mixed messages on the seriousness or otherwise of the security breach.
Speaking in parliament last week, IT minister Dr Austin Gatt admitted that amateur hackers succeeded in infiltrating the government’s central IT server using a simple programme downloaded for free from the internet. He also claimed that on 26 September, the MITTS management revised its earlier opinion and began to act on the assumption that the 20,000 passwords had in fact been stolen.
And yet, in a letter to this newspaper today (see page 10), MITTs communications co-ordinator Andrew Cassar insists that there was no evidence that any hacking took place.
“There was, however, no indication, at the time, that any email accounts had been improperly accessed,” he writes.
Government’s official position on the issue therefore remains unclear. But the same cannot be said for the Opposition, which appears to have adopted a blanket boycott of its government email accounts in all but routine House affairs.
MLP whip Joe Mizzi this week confirmed that Labour MPs no longer trust their government email addresses.
“When it comes to matters of a sensitive or confidential nature, we all use our own private email accounts,” he told MaltaToday.
Echoing claims made to this newspaper by senior Labour officials last month, Dr Joe Mizzi reiterated that he had complained about problems accessing his own gov.mt email account in May 2007.
“I personally have been raising this issue since May of last year,” he said. “In fact I had asked for my password to be changed. Even so, the new password did not work when I tested it, and this was in front of witnesses. MITTS has never come back to me with an explanation.”
Contacted separately by MaltaToday, various Opposition MPs registered their opposition to using government email accounts, although the reasons were not always the same.
Dr Charles Mangion told this newspaper that he had taken a conscious decision not to use his MITTs address years ago.
“I have never used it,” he said. “I prefer to use my office email, which is from a different ISP altogether. I feel more comfortable this way, even for the sake of my clients and their confidentiality.”
But Dr Mangion made it clear that the decision was taken long before any notion that the MITTS server had been hacked.
Other MPs were more direct in their comments. Owen Bonnici claims he had been warned against using his gov.mt address by his parliament colleagues.
“There were rumours going around not to use gov.mt addresses because they were not safe,” he said. “Now it seems those rumours have been confirmed. I think it’s shameful, especially when you consider that according to Minister Gatt himself, the hackers were amateurs.”
Similarly, veteran Labour MP Helena Dalli says she has never used her MITTS address for anything of a sensitive or confidential nature. “They used to keep phoning me to change my password all the time,” she said. “I no longer trust it. I prefer to use my private address instead.”
Questions sent to the clerk of the House regarding complaints about MITTS email accounts, remained unanswered by the time of going to print.

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