Leading technology news outlet, TechCrunch, continues to call out the Jamaican Government for seemingly dismissing its report on the data lapse it first detected on the JamCOVID19 server.

Senior Editor, Zack Whittaker, claimed the Government—particularly the ministries of Health and Wellness and National Security—was not being truthful when it stated Wednesday that it picked up the breach on Tuesday.

“Some background on our story yesterday. TechCrunch discovered the exposed data as part of an investigation into COVID-19 apps, and worked to identify the source and notify them of the breach — as we’ve done before when we’ve found security issues,” Whittaker wrote in a Twitter thread.

“We reached out [to] Jamaica’s Ministry of Health on Saturday (Feb 13) to make contact. We got a response on Sunday from spokesperson Stephen Davidson asking for more information. We sent details of the exposed server that evening. Davidson did not respond. Server remained open,” he added.

Whittaker further noted that the server was still unsecured up until Tuesday, however, when a lead from two Americans affected by the breach directed him to Amber Group, the company contracted by the government and which is still the owner of the centralised resource.

“I reached out to Amber Group’s CEO Dushyant Savadia that afternoon (two days after we emailed the Ministry of Health) and a short time later the exposed data was secured. ‘We will be in touch shortly’, said Savadia. I followed up again today (Thursday), but still have heard nothing,” he said.

The senior TechCrunch security editor continued that roughly minutes after its exposé was published, the Ministry of National Security asserted in response that the security lapse was identified 48 hours prior.

Whittaker argued that the statement contradicts the truth as the Ministry of Health was informed days earlier and, disappointingly, is yet to respond.

“About an hour after our story went out, Jamaica’s Ministry of National Security issued a statement that the security lapse was ‘discovered on February 16’. Except it wasn’t: the Ministry of Health knew about it days earlier,” he noted.

The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is demanding an explanation after yesterday’s revelation of the security lapse which resulted in the individuals’ personal data uploaded to the JAMCOVID19 website spilling out on the open web.

Opposition spokesman on Technology, Hugh Grahama called for National Security Dr Horace Chang Horace Chang to address Parliament, which opens today, about the reports.

See related stories below:

• Opposition: Nation must know what caused JAMCOVID website breach
• Jamaican Gov’t seeks to quell concerns after data security lapse on JAMCOVID19 website