Potential Criminal Activity in Alabama’s Finance Dept. Has FBI Involved
Gov. Robert Bentley asked the FBI for assistance after finding that several state workers in the finance department had unauthorized access to Alabama’s criminal justice database.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency released letters on Friday showing that Bentley also dismissed the state’s chief information officer and placed another finance official on administrative leave.
The database contains law enforcement information and access to the system is limited by law. Bentley wrote in the June 10 letter to the FBI that he was concerned that some of the actions were “potentially criminal in nature.”
Alabama Law Enforcement Secretary Stan Stabler released the letter Bentley sent the FBI and the personnel actions. Stabler said his agency had identified database security issues and raised those concerns to Bentley.
Stabler said in a statement: “The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) is tasked with protecting confidential information of the citizens of Alabama. During the normal course of business, ALEA discovered and identified several security concerns indicating the Department of Finance Information Services Division’s network systems may not be fully compliant with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy. I notified Governor Bentley of the security concerns. Governor Bentley took immediate personnel action. Additionally, Governor Bentley immediately contacted the FBI and requested the FBI partner with the state to provide appropriate audit personnel to assist ALEA in an audit of the state’s information system to ensure compliance with the FBI CJIS Security Policy.
“As with any type of audit, information is preserved to ensure integrity and accuracy of the audit. ALEA’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) secured information system equipment and other documents for further review,” Stabler said.
Ltr to James Nolin from GRB (personnel action) 061716
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