The city of Augusta’s computer system was hacked, that much we know.
Beyond that, everything else about the system shutdown, which has affected nearly every government computer system minus the 911 call center, remains a mystery.
Instead of being proactive and informing the public of a potential threat to private information, the city has been largely silent.
City officials had closed door meetings with the FBI and still have tried to play this situation off as a glitch. It is much more than a glitch, and we all know it. Just how much is the question. Initial reactions, we are told, were even to keep the mayor in the dark
As an internet-based newspaper, The Augusta Press has specific protocols for just such a situation. Our protocols call for notifying our subscribers immediately should an attack occur that compromises any of their personal data.
The city of Augusta has denied anyone’s personal date was compromised, but that’s about all they’ve said. Perhaps city officials fear being mocked as the “international cyber security city” that got hacked. Circling the wagons has done nothing but shoot steroids into the social media rumor mill.
When the city announced a closed emergency meeting of the commission late last week, the Augusta Press management dispatched a reporter to make a plea at the meeting for transparency on such an important issue.
All proper steps were taken in terms of notifying the mayor and clerk of commission of the reporter’s request to speak before the government.
However, when Mayor Garnett Johnson invited the reporter to the podium, City Attorney Wayne Brown leapt out of his chair and instructed the mayor that the meeting was an emergency meeting and therefore the public had no right to address the commission before they went into executive session.
This was a clear violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act. Later the mayor realized he had received bad legal advice; he apologized and invited the reporter to speak at the next commission meeting without time limitations.
We intend to go a step further and offer to pay for David Hudson, the Augusta attorney who represents us and who helped write the laws regarding open meetings and open records, to conduct an educational seminar for commissioner about the state sunshine laws.
We hope the mayor and the commission will agree to attend that seminar.
In the meantime, we believe the mayor is telling the truth when he says that no ransom has been demanded and no credible group has claimed responsibility for the computer hacking that has left the city in flux for almost two weeks.
Nevertheless, because of the secrecy and lack of transparency surrounding this matter, if you are a citizen of Augusta/Richmond County, you need to act as if some of your sensitive data, including your Social Security number and banking information, have been compromised, and you should take the appropriate steps to protect yourself.
