The Nationalist Party has called on the authorities to drop the charges against four people accused of hacking student app Freehour. 

It also urged the government to update cybersecurity laws so that so-called ethical hacking is legalised. 

On Wednesday, three students and a lecturer were charged with hacking the FreeHour app, after they reported security vulnerabilities to the company back in 2022.  

“If the government wants to be taken seriously on cybersecurity and genuinely considers education, students, and teachers a priority, it must immediately ensure that the laws in this field protect well-intentioned citizens rather than putting innocent people at risk of imprisonment,” the PN said. 

The charges, PN claimed, confirm the government rushes to legislate to cover its own tracks but has no interest in reforming laws that are meant to protect the public. 

“Because Malta still lacks up-to-date legislation for today's realities, instead of being credited for their work, the students and their lecturer found the law working against them.” 

PN said common sense must prevail and all charges should be dropped. 

Earlier on Thursday, new party Momentum also called for the charges to be dropped and for the law to be reformed. 

"Ethical hacking plays a vital role in safeguarding our digital infrastructure. These individuals acted in the public interest, potentially preventing a significant data breach that could have harmed countless users," the party’s general secretary Mark Camilleri Gambin said. 

Students Michael Debono, 22, Giorgio Grigolo, 21 and Luke Bjorn Scerri, 23, face charges of gaining unauthorised access to the application. Grigolo is also charged with making a change to the app, although he then reversed the application to its previous state. 

Lecturer Mark Joseph Vella, 45, is charged with being an accomplice to these crimes, as he proofread an email the students sent to FreeHour, informing them of the vulnerabilities they found in their app. 

Last year, FreeHour CEO Zach Ciappara said that, while it was the company that had initially reported the four to the police, FreeHour now wanted a “positive ending” for the accused and was exploring ways to help them.