DALLAS — Several thousand computers previously owned by Dallas County and auctioned off contained personal information, some even containing criminal justice information, the Dallas County Sheriff's Office stated.
Other departments aside from DCSO were affected by this, officials said, as they had computers in the batch auctioned. Some of the computers currently in use by DCSO lack proper encryption to protect the information.
“In this age of information blatant violation of the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) rules and careless compromise of security is unacceptable," Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown said in a statement. "We will work with Dallas County Information Technology Department, to hold them accountable and with the Dallas County Privacy Office to mitigate this matter.”
Dallas County's information technology office has advised Brown that the office is taking steps to correct encryption issues with their current computers. The county has also informed DCSO they are taking steps to mitigate the situation.