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Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully - Source: ONE News -
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The Prime Minister's Office has confirmed to ONE News that Government ministers have no written rules about using personal email accounts to view official business.
This follows news that Foreign Minister Murray McCully's private
account was hacked.
McCully was overseas last year when his personal email account was
hacked, reportedly by the international collective Anonymous.
Prime Minister John Key denies the emails were sensitive.
"To the best of the knowledge I have there was no classified information in his email," Key said.
McCully used his private account to view emails his staff had sent.
The hacking was discovered when emails were sent from that private account without McCully's knowledge.
Labour's Foreign Affairs spokesman, Phil Goff, says the Prime Minister is "talking it down".
"But it is serious when official communications are hacked
because the minister didn't use the right channels," Goff
said.
Key's office says ministers are expected to exercise good judgement
when forwarding emails to personal accounts.
Key said: "In the past I've said to them they need to be very careful about security."
McCully was not available for an interview but in a statement said: "Cabinet material and cables are managed through a secure system."
Goff said there should be a "protocol" to ensure official
information is conveyed in ways that are secure. .
The hacking is reportedly one of a string of online assaults from
the hacking group Anonymous.
In April last year a video claiming to be "Anonymous" was posted warning the Government about its controversial copyright laws.
And when Kim Dotcom was arrested in New Zealand for alleged copyright crimes, the group took down several US websites, including the FBI.
But, according to the Prime Minister's Office, hacking into
McCully's email is not prompting any new rules or added
safeguards.
