Overlooked report warned finance ministry of risk to servers

A report filed four years ago by a tech company warned the government of the risk of water leaks at the finance ministry’s basement, where servers are located.

News of the existing report was released on Wednesday by daily Phileleftheros, a month after a water leak flooded the finance ministry’s basement.

Consequently, the websites of numerous ministries, departments and semi-government organisations were temporarily down until the problem was eventually resolved 24 hours later.

The 2019 report, commissioned by the finance ministry, warned of an increased risk of water leakage, as well as other serious safety concerns regarding fire safety and air conditioning.

According to Phileleftheros, the report was handed to authorities after it was compiled, leaving doubts as to why the government’s IT department did not take measures that would have prevented the accident from occuring.

After the incident, which took place on April 10, Deputy Minister of Research Philippos Hadjizacharias ordered an internal investigation into the causes that lead to the leak.

He will now also attempt to shed light into the reasons why the 2019 report was ignored.

Last week, employees at the Department of Information Technology Services (DITS) laid the blame for damage to the servers at the finance ministry due to a water leak – as well as for a cyberattack on the land registry – squarely on the government.

In an announcement released on April 28, they called on those responsible to take the necessary steps for staffing.

They said that the satisfactory staffing with permanent employees was a prerequisite for ensuring the credibility of the state and point out that otherwise, “there is a visible risk of causing huge and possibly irreparable damage from new cyberattacks with painful consequences”.