The Union of Workers and Archeology (STArq) revealed, in a statement, that there was a “computer failure” in the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage (DGPC), between May and June, which caused “disorders and impediments in communication between technicians , services and bosses”.
According to STARq, this “crash” specially targeted email services and the DGPC websitefrom May 13 to “mid June”.
The DGPC, contacted by the Lusa agency, assured this Thursday that “the situation of ’emails’ and inaccessibility to the DGPC page was resolved in May.”
Specifically, this technical failure came to obstruct the contact of the archeology professionals who worked on the ground, depriving them of the timely response of the central and regional services,” the union writes in a statement released on Wednesday, adding that ” the problem in question is the result of years of lack of investment and strategy, particularly in the DGPC, by successive governments”.
For the guild, with the ’email’ service and the website “out of service”, the “disorders and impediments” also involved “the DGPC itself and the private and academic archeology sector”.
The union reports that it addressed the problem, in a meeting on the 9th, with the general director of Cultural Heritage, João Carlos Santos, and the current deputy director, Catarina Coelho, “without [ter tido] a concrete answer to the problem.
At this meeting, the union sought to know if “an investment by the DGPC in modernization and digital transition” is planned, as well as the value of this investment. According to STARq, in the released statement, “the general director himself limited himself to mentioning [que seria feita] the acquisition of the ‘Microsoft 365 operating system’”.
For the union, this response generates “great concern”, since it indicates the possibility of not having “a plan to assess the real needs of the institution in terms of IT”.
In the statement, STArq reveals the questions it posed to the conservatorship: whether there is “the possibility that a similar situation will occur again in the future”; if “a contingency/security plan exists or will be designed”, and if “the entities and professionals who usually contact the services and technicians of the DGPC were informed of the failure in the system”.
The union states that it is “concerned” that the nature of the malfunction has not been “revealed” —whether it was of internal or external origin to the DGPC— and highlights that “the inability of the servers and the information management “software” of the DGPC is perceivable by any professional or institution that has to relate to or use the services of this body of the Ministry of Culture”.
STARq also questioned whether “relevant data, such as personal information of heritage professionals, Archaeological Heritage protection and safeguarding processes, and archaeological information that only exists in digital format” was accessed/lost, namely asset records, dismantled archaeological sites.
In the statement, the SATRq also questions whether “these eventual losses may have temporary or permanent consequences in the processes supervised by the DGPC.”
STArq had already warned last May of a stoppage in the computer system, and at the time, on May 25, the DGPC guaranteed that the problem would be “corrected” by the end of that day, as it was a “server anomaly” . that was being “resolved”, ruling out any possibility of external computer attack, as this public body explained to the Lusa agency at the time.
Also in May, STArq requested clarification from the guardianship, the Minister of Culture and the Secretary of State for Culture, but received no clarification.
The Lusa agency communicated with the DGPC, about the position and alerts of STARq, and the director’s adviser stated, by email, that “the situation of the emails and the inaccessibility of the DGPC page was resolved in the month of May”, not having , so “nothing to add”.
Source: Observadora
