Cabinet recommends pardon for students and lecturer charged with hacking

Three students and a lecturer will be pardoned for ethically hacking the student app FreeHour, as recommended by the Cabinet.

According to a government press release, the Cabinet discussed the case and took note of FreeHour’s position on the matter.

It acknowledged that, at the time the alleged crime was committed, Malta did not have a legal framework regulating ethical hacking.

Because of this, the Cabinet agreed to recommend a presidential pardon for the accused. It will be up to the president to confirm the pardon for the four accused.

Three students – Michael Debono, Giorgio Grigolo and Luke Bjorn Scerri – were charged last week with gaining unauthorised access to the FreeHour app.

Their lecturer, Mark Joseph Vella, was charged as an accomplice because he proofread an email sent to FreeHour by the students.

Back in October 2022, the students scanned the app’s software and discovered vulnerabilities in it. Giorgio Grigolo made a change to the app to inform FreeHour of this vulnerability.

Grigolo took a screenshot of the change and then reverted everything back to its original state shortly after.

After this, the students emailed FreeHour’s founder, Zach Ciappara, outlining their findings and asked for a reward in return for finding this mistake.

After receiving the email, Ciappara reported the matter to the police and an investigation was opened.

Scerri, Grigolo, and Debono were arrested at their homes in November of 2022 arrested and taken into custody. Police strip-searched them, searched their homes, and seized various tech devices and equipment.