The Department of Homeland Security has reached a preliminary conclusion that what appeared to be an attempted breach of Georgia’s computer systems was due to an inadvertent configuration of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection computer, an official familiar with the matter said. The DHS official said a preliminary investigation had traced the incident to the computer of an employee at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection whose job responsibilities included verifying professional licensing information that are often maintained by state secretaries of state.
The department has interviewed the employee and now believes that the user’s computer workstation was inadvertently configured to make legitimate inquiries on the state website look like an attempt to breach its computer firewall.
The official said the investigation would continue but the preliminary working theory was that it was a technical glitch and no government employees were attempting to breach the state’s computer system.
Full Article: Homeland Security Says Georgia Computer Breach Incident Was Likely Inadvertent – WSJ.