Decision ordered on disclosure of cyberattack report
The Cabinet Secretary has been ordered to issue a decision on whether an external report on the cyberattack which crippled government services in September 2023 should be made public.
Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez, in a decision due to be made public tomorrow, gave Major Marc Telemaque until March 11 to provide The Royal Gazette with a decision and the reasoning behind it.
She wrote: “It is a matter of fact that the Cabinet Office did not provide the [applicant] with an internal review decision within the statutory time frame.
“The Information Commissioner is satisfied that the Cabinet Office failed to comply with … the Pati Act and now orders the Cabinet Office to issue an internal review decision.
“The Cabinet Office may also wish to consider apologising to the applicant.”
The report was delivered to the Cabinet Office on November 7, 2023, less than two months after the hack, according to information shared in the Senate by tourism minister Owen Darrell last June.
Mr Darrell told the Upper House it was not produced internally.
He added: “Those who prepared it, external to Government, have had access to the report.”
Opposition senator Douglas De Couto criticised the Government for its alleged “delaying tactics and lack of clarity” regarding the report.
A Cabinet Office spokeswoman responded later that the report would not be made public.
The Gazette requested the document under public access to information legislation on September 12 last year but did not receive a decision within six weeks, as required by law.
The newspaper requested an internal review from the head of the authority, Major Telemaque but, again, received no response within six weeks so appealed to the Information Commissioner.
The Pati request also sought any other internal or external reports held by the Cabinet Office about the cyberattack and any communications concerning the formation of a joint select committee to investigate the attack.
It was announced in October that the self-governing, bipartisan JSC would be chaired by Lawrence Scott, a PLP backbencher, with the PLP’s Scott Simmons and Anthony Richardson, and the One Bermuda Alliance’s Robert King and Dwayne Robinson, also appointed.
Mr Scott promised monthly updates on the committee’s progress in November but nothing further was released before the election was announced on January 8.
The Cabinet Office said on Wednesday that it had received the Information Commissioner’s order and noted its contents.
• To read the ICO decision, see Related Media
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