Last week we reported that Derek Foder, a low-level employee working for the Town of Hempstead Clerk Mark Bonilla, was arrested for allegedly destroying more than 5,000 files from the town’s computer system on the same day that his boss was fired.
It remains unclear what his motive might have been if he indeed did destroy the files. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said Foder, 27, was charged with felony computer tampering in the third degree.
Bonilla, of Bellmore, was found guilty last month on one count of official misconduct for threatening to transfer an employee unless he gave Bonilla personal photographs of a female employee who had accused Bonilla of sexual harassment.
What Foder is accused of doing is a serious offense. We assume that the town has eliminated the possibility that the files were destroyed by accident and that it has the technology to know who has accessed computer files and what was done with them. They can even tell exactly the time of day the files were destroyed.
Why then did they not have the technology to back-up the files, preferably at a secure off-site location? Thousands of area residents do that every day with their laptops and computers using programs such as Carbonite or other means.
And why did a low-level staffer have unfettered access to sensitive files?
“Mr. Foder deleted sensitive information essential to the operation of an important Town of Hempstead office,” Rice said. “My office will continue to weed out those who abuse the trust placed in them by the public and ensure that they face the consequences of their actions.”
Perhaps Rice should be asking why security at the Town of Hempstead is so lax.
