Police are confident their systems have not been hacked, amid allegations a group of Israelis caught up in the Christchurch earthquake were suspected of trying to access the national computer.
The Southland Times reported today the behaviour of a number of Israelis following Christchurch's February earthquake raised Security Intelligence Service (SIS) suspicions and sparked an investigation into the possibility the police national computer may have been hacked.
An unnamed SIS officer told the newspaper there were fears a group of Israelis had accessed the police national computer database, which holds records of convictions and other information collected by police.
The officer said the investigation failed to find any suspicious files indicating the computer system had been hacked in to, but the file remained open.
In a statement this morning, acting chief information officer for police Murray Mitchell said the system was subject to regular security audits and intrusion checks.
"We also have a number of anti-intrusion measures designed to stop unauthorised or malicious programmes from entering or being active on our systems," he said.
"These systems are regularly being updated and reviewed, and we are confident that our data and network were not compromised during the Christchurch Earthquake response or subsequently."
The SIS investigation was reportedly focused on a group of four people in a van in the Christchurch central business district (CBD) when the quake hit.
Ofer Benyamin Mizrahi, 23, the driver, was killed instantly while the other three escaped the wreckage and left the country within 12 hours.
The SIS became suspicious after "at least" five passports were found on Mr Mizrahi. Other concerns included the immediate flight of his three companions, the high level Israeli Government interest in the quake and the unexplained behaviour of a private search and rescue squad funded by the families of Israelis killed in the quake.
Speaking from Los Angeles this morning, Prime Minister John Key refused to comment on whether there was an SIS inquiry into any alleged Israeli activity following the quake, saying it was not in the "national interest".
Mr Key said there were no New Zealand passports among the several that Mr Mizrahi was caught with, and there was no evidence showing there has been misuse of New Zealand passports.
Green Party police spokesperson Keith Locke said Mr Key was wrong, that the incident was in the public's interest, and called for the Government to come clean.
"It is important for us to know if any of the Israelis in Christchurch were travelling on false passports, or had them in their possession," he said.
"Following the Mossad assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last year, there is an international police effort to stop Israeli agents obtaining false passports.
"It would be inexcusable, after two Mossad agents were imprisoned for passport fraud in 2004 for Mossad agents to once again be present here with false documentation."
Mr Locke said the public also needed information about whether the police computer might have been compromised.
"As in any public report, the police and SIS are entitled to withhold operational details, but we need to know what conclusions they have reached."
Labour leader Phil Goff also called for the Government to be more open, saying if the allegations were true the Government should expose such an attack on the rights of New Zealanders and our sovereignty, rather than cover it up.
Israeli Ambassador Shemi Tzur dismissed suspicions that a group from Israel's secret service, Mossad, were caught up in the quake as "science fiction".
"These were youngsters holidaying in your beautiful country...we encourage our young people to visit New Zealand," Mr Tzur said.
However, former political science lecturer Paul Buchanan told Radio New Zealand that while the newspaper's evidence was circumstantial, it was credible.
"The five passports, the unusual amount of political activity on the part of the Israelis in the aftermath, the very fact that the three survivors departed the country, leaving behind one of their ostensible friends without any concern or care, would all indicate that they were here for more than just a holiday," he said.
"What comes to mind immediately, is that they may have been here on a trolling expedition, which basically means that they're engaged in identity theft. They're looking for names of New Zealanders that they can use on, what are known as cloned passports."
Dr Buchanan said New Zealand passports were valuable for intelligence services because of the country's neutrality in world affairs.
