Swedish PM announces cabinet reshuffle

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven attends a news conference at Rosenbad, the Swedish government headquarters, in Stockholm, Sweden July 27, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

STOCKHOLM - Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced on Thursday that he would reshuffle cabinet over an IT security scandal.

At a press conference, Lofven announced that the interior and infrastructure ministers would leave their posts, over the IT security scandal.

"I will not put Sweden into a political crisis...I take responsibility for the country," Lofven said. He refused to requests of a full government resignation.

The defence minister, however, despite being under pressure by the opposition, kept his post.

Confidential information, including the country's driver's license registry with photos, as well as sensitive information about bridges, subways, roads and ports in Sweden, was available to IT personnel working in the Czech Republic and Serbia through an outsourcing agreement between Sweden's Transport Agency and global IT company IBM, Swedish public television broadcaster SVT reported.

SVT reported that in 2015 the Transport Agency decided to outsource the management of its vehicle and drivers' license registers to IBM. The databases also contain information about police and military vehicles, as well as data on anybody who has a driver's license.

In 2015, IBM decided to place the IT administration in eastern Europe, giving personnel who have no security clearance access to sensitive information, SVT reports.

The former director general of Sweden's Transport Agency Maria Agren bypassed several laws designed to protect sensitive information to go ahead with the outsourcing agreement with IBM, according to the SVT reports. Agren was fired in January.