Local Radar

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Judge lays blame of security breach on county

web posted July 12, 2006

EDGEFIELD – The Edgefield County Council held their July meeting Tuesday night and fireworks bigger than the Fourth of July erupted which had the Chairman gaveling down the outbursts several times. Probate Judge Bobby Peeler addressed the council regarding records discrepancies. Chairman Kneece asked if the issue had to do with personnel or contractual matters and Judge Peeler said no stating personnel issues of the Probate Court are not the purview of the County Council and that had nothing to do with his statements. The issue Judge Peeler presented was the intentional manipulations of the Probate Court Judge’s computer.

In a statement read to council, and provided to local media, Judge Peeler informed the County Council that on May 16, 2006 he was at a meeting in Santee when Associate Probate Judge Barbara Brodie was contacted by Administrator Adams’ office. Lee Ann Anderson informed the court that “Larry” from “Pronet” needed access to Judge Peeler’s personal computer due to a virus being reported on the computer.

Associate Judge Brodie claimed that in the absence of Judge Peeler, she could not allow anyone access to the computer without the judge’s approval. Judge Peeler stated that Associate Judge Brodie disconnected the computer until the matter could be resolved resolving the issue at hand.

Judge Peeler stated Ms. Anderson made several trips to his office asking repeatedly, and being given repeatedly, the port numbers for all Probate Court computers. Again on May 24 Judge Peeler stated Anderson returned again with “some sort of diagram in her hand,” requesting the port numbers yet again.

Judge Peeler stated that, “Shortly thereafter while trying to access the court website to open an estate of someone who just lost a loved one,” they discovered the internet was not working. A check of all of the Probate Court computers showed none were able to access the required website provided by the Supreme Court for judicial documents and other required information.

“90% of my Office was totally shut down,” Judge Peeler said. Judge Peeler referred the council to the provided memo from Administrator Adams claiming he was ordered to shut down the court’s access to the internet on the order of Donna Royson. Judge Peeler stated he contacted Ms. Royson and, “she assured me that the entire memo as it related to her and her office was false.”

EdgefieldDaily.com also spoke to Ms. Royson and was given the same information.

Judge Peeler said, “She (Royson) advised me that yes, she had a conversation with Wayne Adams, but only as it related to where he (Administrator Adams) had gotten the authority to tie into the election commission computer system.” Judge Peeler also noted that the Election Commission was involved because, “an 800% increase in activity had been noted on the Election Commission computer system from this county after working hours.”

Information that could be obtained from the election commission’s records would be invaluable to a campaign as records contained on the election commissions servers provide intimate information of the voter.

Judge Peeler explained that every safety function of his computer was disabled by an administrator on February 27, 2005. Judge Peeler stated he was not the administrator of his computer. Furthermore, through the act of intentionally disabling the security features, his computer was set up to be able to be accessed by a remote computer.

Councilman Willie Bright confirmed at the meeting that Judge Peeler was not the Administrator of the computer and that the administrator was Administrator Wayne Adams or his designee and that the computer was set up to allow the access Judge Peeler proclaimed.

Adams said it was Judge Peeler’s fault and that Peeler was the administrator of the system. That claim was refuted. A direct question to Councilman Willie Bright by EdgefieldDaily.com confirmed that Judge Peeler did not have “administrative powers” over the computer.

At one point Administrator Adams claimed that Judge Peeler said he was going to bring a computer from home to the court to be able to access the internet. Associate Judge Brodie exclaimed, “That is a lie!” She said no such statement was ever made.

Chairman Kneece gaveled the discussion down saying that he would not allow people to call each other liars, while allowing Administrator Adams to claim Judge Peelers accusations were false when in fact his own statements, and those of council proved Adams had control over the computer.

Judge Peeler stated that over a year ago he reported to the county that he was being spammed with over 40,000 emails and the county did nothing to stop it. In addition, Judge Peeler stated, “the viruses would not have been there if someone had not dis-endisabled the virus protection on February the 27 of 2005.” In addition, Judge Peeler said not having access to email prevented his communication with the Supreme Court.

“It’s fun and games, but it gets old,” Judge Peeler said. “We are providing a service.” He alluded to the fact that the antics of the Administrator were hindering his Office’s functions.

Chairman Kneece refused to address the issue of what had taken place in “the past” stating he wanted to look forward and not at the past, “that is all water over the dam,” he said. Judge Peeler said his Office is now required to inform everyone that their records and personal information may have been jeopardized. To do so would cost at least $1,500 just in postage, not counting staff hours and paperwork. “Where is that money going to come from,” Judge Peeler asked.

“We are talking about thousands of notifications. Do the math, stamps, envelopes, staff to complete this task. Where is this money going to come from?” Judge Peeler said. “This deliberate act is going to cost the taxpayers in ways not even realized yet.”

Judge Peeler, who had to leave the meeting to attend to a recent death in the family, left his court staff to answer questions.

Councilman Willie Bright confirmed that the court’s computers were updated automatically, but Judge Peeler’s computer was not updated after the manipulation. He stated that at the time of the investigation into the judge’s computer that every other computer in the Probate Court had been updated within the last “24 hours.”

In addition, Adams claimed at first that no private information was made available due to the breech but then recanted and said that all personal information was at risk.

Administrator Adams denied any affiliation to administrative control over the court computers but Adams denoted intimate facts about the computer viruses contained on the Probate Judge’s computer by saying “key log” viruses had been added when that information had not been provided in official reports.

How Adams knew intimate facts of a computer and the viruses contained on it when he has not been given access to the computer remains unknown.

Administrator Adams claimed the Circuit Court Judge allowed the county to access their computers to address a separate issue. Administrator Adams claimed the circuit court had no problem allowing the county IT service provider to examine the compute when in fact the South Carolina Court Administration, not the county as the administrator claimed, did it the inspection.

Judge Peeler did leave the council with one comment, “I want you all to be aware that further unwarranted interference with my court will not be tolerated.”


 

 

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