Glitch in California Court Computer System Exposed Confidential Data
Multiple technology problems delayed action on a computer glitch that exposed confidential case information in California’s Sacramento County, according to the court’s presiding judge.
A probate lawyer first noticed the problem on courthouse computer kiosks May 24, but they weren’t closed down until June 4, according to the Recorder’s Legal Pad blog. The problem made 433 confidential documents available on the public kiosks, the Recorder reported in a prior story. Someone accessed at least two of the documents—a probate guardian screening form and a probate investigator’s report, the story says.
Presiding Judge Steve White told Legal Pad that court technology employees didn’t act immediately because of another computer problem—only three cases were displayed on judges’ law-and-motion calendars, even though many more were pending. When the technicians realized late June 3 that the technology breach was widespread, they shut down the kiosks to the public.
Court officials blame the problems on an update to their case management system, but there is some disagreement on the source of the problems.
