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Conn. Workers Visit Off-Limit Web Sites
by Michael Martinez
A substantial amount of the employees at Connecticut's Environmental Protection Department have been visiting unauthorized Web sites on the job, according to a new report.
The state Auditors of Public Accounts office found in a recent study that almost half of the department's computers were used to browse prohibited sites during 2004 and 2005. State employees are allowed to use their computers only for official business.
The auditors said the department's supervisors did not appear to be monitoring or enforcing the policy. They reported that 19 of the 42 computers they randomly selected to review were used to view restricted sites.
The Connecticut Post reported Sunday that the auditors flagged one employee who was using a computer to browse sites advertising mail-order brides from Eastern Europe. Other frequently viewed sites included ones belonging to various newspapers and merchants.
A department spokesman told the Post that the report was completed before its computers were integrated into a statewide system with more effective filtering applications. He added that employees have been warned about the state's Web-browsing policies, but none of them have been disciplined.
Connecticut has punished employees for violating acceptable-Internet-use agreements in the past. State Veterans Affairs Commissioner Linda Schwartz was disciplined last year after it was discovered that she had been using her computer to routinely visit the online auction site eBay.
In other news, the Los Angeles Times reported this week that Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca blocked hundreds of computers from accessing a union Web site where critical comments about him and his staff were being written.
Undersheriff Larry Waldie told the Times that Baca decided to restrict employee access to the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs' site because damaging things were written about him recently in the union's newsletter.
Union President Steve Remige, an outspoken critic of Baca's decision to release hotel heiress Paris Hilton from jail earlier this year, said Baca is trying to bully his group. Baca's move to release Hilton from jail before her sentence expired eventually was overruled by a judge.
Baca reportedly is considering restoring access to the site if the union takes steps to curtail the derogatory statements being made about him and staff.
The Iowa Public Employees Retirement System, meanwhile, is fighting requests that it make available to the public reports about potential inappropriate Internet use among its employees.
The Des Moines Register reported this week that the retirement system refused to release a 1,400-page analysis about the contents of a particular employee's hard drive. The Register requested the report earlier this year after another employee was fired for allegedly viewing pornographic images on his computer.
A retirement system spokeswoman said the office insists the information included in the report is confidential. The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board is considering launching a probe into the why the report has been kept private.
Efforts to restrict the use of public computers sparked controversies in other states during the past year. A Democratic blogger in Kentucky sued Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, after he learned that state employees were being blocked from his site. He claimed the state filtered his site for political reasons. The lawsuit is still pending in federal court.
Milwaukee Wi-Fi Vendor May Leave Project
The company hired to build and manage a citywide high-speed Internet network in Milwaukee, Wis., is considering backing out of the project.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported this week that a partner at Midwest Fiber Networks said the firm may abandon the initiative, which city officials have estimated may take two more years to complete.
Donna Raffaelli-Meyer, a company partner, told the city's Public Works Committee that her firm is evaluating whether the network is a good investment. Her comments did not sit well with some panel members who suggested that the city begin seeking other companies to build and operate the network.
Alderman Michael Murphy said Midwest Fiber Networks has not lived up to the promises it made when it was awarded the contract and that it is worth considering whether a larger firm could complete the project more efficiently.
N.J. Man Gets More Jail Time For Online Fraud
New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram this week announced that a Garden State convict is going to serve additional jail time for defrauding Internet users of tens of thousands of dollars in a check-kiting scam.
Milgram said that John Messina, who already is serving a sentence for unrelated charges, was sentenced by a state superior court to three more years in prison for online fraud. He also has been ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution.
Messina acknowledged in court his role in a scheme where he advertised online at a site linking entrepreneurs to potential investors. He promised several users, including an online real-estate business, that he could secure millions of dollars in investments for them.
The court ordered Messina to pay Bank of America $20,600 for kiting checks. According to prosecutors, he tried to deposit that amount in worthless checks into his mother's account at the bank and tried to withdraw the cash before the checks bounced.
La. College Board Discloses Data Breach
The Louisiana Board of Regents this week acknowledged that a computer glitch has exposed the personal information of thousands of students and school employees in the Pelican State.
The board, which manages the state's higher education system, disclosed that a gap in its information system left the information available online. Officials are still investigating how the system error occurred.
In a statement released this week, the board said that it has contacted the state attorney general's office and that the glitch has been fixed. It insisted that no "mission-critical data' related to public colleges or universities was compromised."
A spokesman told The Advocate in Baton Rouge that the information could have been available online for as long as two years. But he claimed that the data was attainable only through a "complicated Internet search."
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