Investigation Blames IT Worker For Ga. Voter Data Leak
A report released by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office blames the recent data release on a single IT employee.
David Goldman / Associated Press
A report released Monday following an internal investigation conducted by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office blames the release of the personal information of 6 million voters on Gary Cooley, an IT employee in the office who was fired following the breach.
The report says an “anomaly” existed in IT processes that allowed requests for voter data from other government agencies to be “fast-tracked” and gave employees too much autonomy.
The Secretary of State’s Office, according to the report, made Cooley responsible to resolve the issues, and it says he failed to do so.
The office, since 2009, had trouble dealing with Cooley, when he was suspended without pay for “failure to achieve accuracy in his work, failing to document, audit processes” and failure to communicate with his supervisor.
The report does not go into detail about what might have been done since 2009 to address the issues in the IT department.
It says when Cooley found out the Social Security information was included in the data set that was eventually sent out, he covered it up.
In an interview with the Atlanta-Journal Constitution before the release of the report, Cooley said he was a scapegoat.
The report also includes a list of “action items.” Highlights include more involvement by management in the IT department and its work with voter data, as well as more training for data management and the office’s policy when it comes to the data.
Each month, Kemp’s office releases a voter file to some media outlets and political parties with basic information, such as names, addresses, race and gender.
But in October, those agencies received more than usual, including the Social Security numbers of Georgia voters.
You can read the whole report below.
Top Stories
