The PN on Tuesday urged the government to resolve the ongoing issues being faced by a group of IT students who are the subject of a police probe after they exposed flaws in a website's security systems.
Last month Times of Malta reported on how Michael Debono, Giorgio Grigolo, and Luke Bjorn Scerri were barred from competing in a European cybersecurity challenge they qualified for last month.
This is because there is still an ongoing police investigation against them after they were arrested for exposing a security weakness in the student application FreeHour.
The students had e-mailed FreeHour to inform the company of the security flaw and requested a reward – or ‘bug bounty’ – a common practice in ethical or ‘white hat’ hacking. But instead of a payoff, the University of Malta students were arrested, strip-searched and had their computer equipment seized.
To date, no charges have been filed against them.
In a statement on Tuesday, PN shadow ministers Ivan J Bartolo and Bernice Bonello said the situation is evidence of just how much the government has neglected the talents of local youth and failed to capitalise on the opportunity for Malta to participate in the European Cybersecurity Challenges.
Even though these students showed talent and dedication to their craft, they were being denied the opportunity to represent their country, on top of being punished for discovering a security flaw and reporting it.
Bartolo and Bonello said the way the government acted indicated huge shortcomings.
The students were informed way too late that they were being disqualified after they had already triumphed in national trials, they said.
The prolonged investigation had also left them in limbo and undoubtedly left them doubting their enthusiasm for cybersecurity, the MPs added.
"The lack of a national strategy for cybersecurity means that we have no framework to support and raise digital innovation in our country," they said.
"As a result of this bitter experience, many students have been discouraged from involving themselves in the digital sphere and this puts the potential of such an essential sector for our economic future at risk. We cannot allow fear to shred innovation."
They appealed to the government to put an end to this saga as quickly as possible and ensure that Malta's politics on cybersecurity create an environment where cybersecurity can flourish.
Youth must be encouraged to adapt to the digital future in order to succeed in a rapidly changing environment.
"Malta's future depends on this. Let us not lose this opportunity to support our students and showcase Maltese talent on an international platform."