The Tarrant Appraisal District (TAD) in Texas is turning over data to an outside technology firm, which will determine whether any taxpayer’s personal information was stolen in a possible breach, according to Dallas TV station WFAA ABC 8 News.
The district’s board of directors announced the move Sept. 18, during their first meeting since an internal investigation prompted the firing of IT director Cal Wood. Earlier, Jeff Law, TAD chief appraiser, resigned under a cloud of “no confidence” rulings, and has since accepted another chief appraiser position with another Texas district.
The hacking inquiry was centered on audio obtained by the TV station that raised questions about the cause of website problems users experienced in April and May. A whistleblower secretly recorded Wood telling staff he is “OK with creating a false narrative that distances the truth from the media.”
It’s not clear whether the district ever audited its own computer system to determine if it’d been hacked.
“We asked that of Wood, and he gave us an answer, but that’s come into question,” Board Chair Tony Pompa told the TV station. “I’m not sure what we know and what we don’t know at this time. One set of staff says they think we were (hacked) and another set of staff thinks we weren’t. We don’t really know for sure. That’s why our decision is to bring somebody from the outside to get in there, look at the data and information, and tell us unequivocally ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”