Report on govt servers flood sent to Legal Service

The government has sent the findings of its investigation into the flooding of state computer services to the Legal Service, Research Deputy Minister Nikodimos Damianou said on Friday.

Speaking to journalists, he explained that the government currently operates a total of 40 “data centres” which house state servers, and that an internal investigation found that “there are five or six centres which do not meet the required standards.”

As a result, he said, work is underway to find suitable locations to which the servers can move.

He said the risks faced by data centres “have existed for years”, and that last April’s flood brought the matter to the fore.

The servers in question, which were located underneath the finance ministry’s building, were transferred to a “secure area” in November, he said.

For this, he added, “I wish to give credit to my predecessor for promptly and successfully handling the issue, as while the problems had existed for many years, previous governments had taken no action to resolve them.”

Touching on the content of the report, he said it “documented and highlighted the long delay and time-consuming decision-making processes regarding the transfer of IT systems from their inappropriate premises to somewhere more suitable.”

He also decried the “lack of a culture of taking responsibility,” as well as “significant deficiencies in terms of procedures and mechanisms for monitoring systems and conditions in data centres.”

He added that he is “unsatisfied” by the result of the investigation, saying “based on my professional experience in the private sector, I would expect to see such evidence which can lead to conclusions of people taking responsibility. In this case, that is not the case.”

To this end, he said the government has “made it a priority to take immediate action to find an effective comprehensive solution to the problem,” and that “the relevant actions have begun.”

In more positive news for the government, Damianos announced a deal with technology powerhouse Microsoft worth €8 million for the supply of Microsoft 365 software licences for 10,000 public sector users.

The licences, he said, “have been provided for a wide range of modern tools, such as email services, secure collaboration and document circulation, cloud computing services, project management tools, as well as the training of professionals.”

He added, “this is a strategic agreement which is expected to significantly contribute to the strengthening of public sector’s efficiency.

“It is a part of a series of actions we are planning to modernise the internal operation of the state machine.”