Doña Ana County Information Technology Application Manager Geof Abruzzi addressed the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners today to address questions about the security of the county’s database.
His statement was as follows:
“Some concerns have been raised about the recent arrests of employees in the Doña Ana County Clerk’s Office, and whether either of these incidents is evidence of compromises of the computer systems at the county. I wanted to address those concerns and let the commission, and the public, know what we have determined by our own analysis of events.
“Let me begin with the use of election data to cash tax refund checks. In this scheme, the person allegedly accessed information using an online system run by the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office.
“This system is not managed in any way by county IT staff so we are unable say whether this person had been given access that she shouldn't have had, or if there were exploited flaws in the system that allowed her access beyond what was granted. We are also unable to evaluate or change security procedures on this system.
“The second recent issue is that of an employee allegedly falsifying county pay stubs in order to receive food-stamp benefits. In response, we have reviewed the systems involved to look for evidence of a breach, or for permissions that would allow access to change the information. We have found no evidence of such a breach, and she had no user access to the database that generated the online pay stub.
“We have been in contact with the Sheriff's Office and while they cannot provide us specifics at this point, they have indicated that this event was likely not a compromise of our system security.
“We will continue to monitor these events in case there is information that suggests that our systems or procedures need changes, but at this point, nothing in either event suggests problems or compromises in the security of data systems at the County.
“We understand that we manage information about many of the residents, property owners, and employees in the county, and security is our top concern.”