VB city employees hack state database

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - A database filled with personal and confidential information has become the centerpiece of a Virginia Beach city investigation.

WAVY.com learned employees and managers in the Human Services Department, are accused of hacking into a state computer database. Most of the cases happened in the financial assistance department, which handles things like food stamps and Medicaid, while none involved stealing.

The alleged hackers did use what they found for all the wrong reasons. Now Virginia Beach officials have taken disciplinary action against several city employees. Some no longer work there, a few others received suspensions.

A private computer system called 'Spider' puts all of the personal information for people receiving social services in Virginia into on comprehensive database. The database helps workers serve clients.

Access to the social security numbers and financial information is highly privileged.

"We take it very seriously in regards to ensuring those sites and that info is only accessed for necessary purposes, and it's not going to be tolerated in Virginia Beach if it's used inappropriately," said City Auditor Lyndon Reemias.

Reemias said on several occasions last year, human services supervisors and employees did use the database inappropriately and violated citizens private information. WAVY.com obtained the case results from those 2009 investigations.

In one case, the investigation found a "supervisor coerced employees" to obtain information from the state database about "her husband's daughter from a previous relationship."

Then "pretended to be the daughter's mother" to get child support information. The supervisor was fired and the employees were suspended.

In four cases, the city disciplined at least eight human services employees.

"In these specific instances we had the documentation and evidence to support that there was wrong doing. When you see employees that are being terminated, obviously it's being taken very seriously in the city of Virginia Beach," said Reemias.

The auditor said none of the privacy violations involved criminal activity. He said for the most part employees used the database to look at information on people they knew.

All of the employees are being re-trained on privacy policies and the use of private information. Anybody in Virginia Beach can make an anonymous complaint to the Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Hotline by calling 468-3330.