Fergie's Tech Blog

911 Dispatcher Misuses Database, Kills Ex-Girlfriend

This is a horrible, horrible abuse of privilege.

Declan McCullagh writes on C|Net News:

In October 2003, Michael Michalski worked for Allegheny County, Pa., as an emergency dispatcher. He began running searches on the internal computer network and databases to locate his former girlfriend, Gretchen Ferderbar, and her current boyfriend, Mark Phillips.

A supervisor, Daniel Nussbaum, became aware of Michalski's misuse of government databases and placed him on a deferred suspension that was to begin a week later, on Oct. 27.

Because he still had access to the databases before his suspension began, Michalski continued to gain unauthorized access to personal information about Phillips. Specifically, he looked up Phillips' motor vehicle and license plate registrations in an effort to track and locate Phillips.

Then, while on suspension, Michalski phoned his co-workers at the call center, who allegedly helped him continue the database lookups even though they were aware it was for an illicit purpose.

posted by Fergie @ 5/19/2006 04:46:00 PM