ddddddSource: Anna Catania
Information Management Officer
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

About ten years ago, the Government of Malta invested heavily in an infrastructure that linked together all Ministries and consequently all government departments. This was the birth of what we know today as the MAGNET.

In 1995 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs comprehended the big potential of this infrastructure and asked MITTS Ltd to investigate the possibility of connecting all Maltese Embassies and High Commissions abroad to the MAGNET. This essentially meant that all Embassies and High Commissions would be linked to the MAGNET just like any other government department.

The first pioneers of this massive project were the Maltese High Commission in London and the Maltese Embassy in Brussels. It was decided that the best way to link these offices together would be by creating a Virtual Private Network (VPN) using one main service provider. MCI Worldcom was chosen to be the provider for this service. MCI Worldcom was one of the leading telecommunications companies.

Initially the infrastructure consisted of 3 frame relay connections, each of 64 kpbs. The three connections were one for the London Office, another for Brussels Office. The third one was used to consolidate the two bandwidths in Malta. Two routers were installed at both sites. The routers’ main job was to organise and distribute all Internet traffic. Two e-mail servers were also installed: one in London and another in Brussels. The servers’ main duties were to handle employees e-mail boxes and thus enabling a more efficient e-mail communication due to the fact that employees were accessing information from their local server instead of a server situated at Gattard House Malta. For maximum security all Internet traffic emanating from these Embassies was automatically routed through MITTS’ Internet infrastructure.

The e-mail server mentioned earlier was also configured as an office automation server in such a way that it could be administered remotely, by MITTS personnel, via the VPN.

This project was a tremendous success. Consequently the Ministry of Foreign Affairs connected ten embassies to the MAGNET via the VPN. These Embassies are: Maltese Consulate Toronto, Maltese embassy Berlin, Maltese Embassy Brussels, Maltese Embassy Madrid, Maltese Embassy Paris, Maltese Embassy Rome, Maltese Embassy Stockholm, Maltese Embassy Washington, Maltese High Commission London, and UN Permanent Representation New York.

This infrastructure proved to be such a huge success that the traffic between the Embassies and Malta increased tremendously; hence it was necessary to increase the connection from 64 kbps to 128 kbps. This success was due to the convenience this system provides vis-à -vis communication. The Ministry benefited from a substantial reduction in telephone bills due to the fact that communication was done through this system rather than through the use of telephony for conversation and faxes.

You will agree that there is no luxury without a cost. The luxury of having an embassy in a foreign country just a click away is no exception. To sustain such an infrastructure the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to incur a fee of more than Lm90,000 to keep ten embassies connected at a limited bandwidth of 128 kbps. A bandwidth that, by today’s standards, can be considered as very modest.

A problem had surfaced with regards to MCI Worldcom - a problem that no one had anticipated. After the 11th September disaster MCI Worldcom found themselves in financial difficulty. This essentially meant that if MCI Worldcom stopped operating, the connectivity between Malta and the various Embassies would be discontinued. Hence once again the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to approach MITTS Ltd for a solution.

The solution would still revolve around a Virtual Private Network but instead of using one service provider for the whole solution, one service provider would be identified for every embassy that would be connected to the MAGNET. Nowadays, with the concept of ADSL, this solution is now possible. Every Embassy would be equipped with a firewall: a Cisco PIX firewall. This type of firewall was chosen because it is specifically designed for small networks. This firewall would provide the give the network with the security that an Embassy is expected to have. This firewall would also serve as a filter for all Internet traffic and e-mail service.

Right now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the help MITTS Ltd, is in the process of establishing ADSL connections in the Embassies. This involves configuring the firewall and then installing the same firewall in each Embassy. By mid-February the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall have connected to the MAGNET the ten Missions that were primarily linked via MCI Worldcom. To these we will be adding Maltese Embassy Athens, Maltese Embassy Vienna and the Maltese High Commission Canberra, Maltese in Sydney and Maltese Consulate Melbourne. May I add that by end June 2004 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have also linked five more missions namely: Maltese Embassy Tripoli, Maltese Embassy Tunis, Maltese Embassy Beijing, Maltese Embassy Moscow, Maltese Embassy Cairo.

Using this new system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be benefiting tremendously from an increase in bandwidth 32 times greater than the original bandwidth. Security has been stepped up to reflect today’s security threats. With the new system each Mission now has its own gateway, and hence this can be controlled individually. The firewall is offering an encryption service at point of origin of the communication. Transmission of e-mail is now more efficient.

Moreover the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be benefiting from a decrease in annual fees. The Ministry will have spent Lm35,000 as a one-time cost to install the firewalls. However, having now twice as many missions connected, i.e. 20 Embassies in all, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be decreasing its annual connectivity fees to less than 50% of the fees previously paid to MCI Worldcom.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Robert Galea from MITTS Ltd and his team for all their help and support in making such a massive project possible. Thank you and well done!