Computer investigation continues

Sarasota city commissioners didn’t get much of an update about a computer forensics investigation at their regular meeting Monday, June 18, at City Hall. In fact, they were told it will take a couple more weeks, at least, to hear an update into an independent analysis of IT Project Manager Sandra Coleman’s personal computer, which was used last year to access the city’s computer network. The analysis is being performed to see if any city information is located on the computer’s hard drive.

The analysis, though, has been fraught with delays as attorneys for the city, Coleman and The Sylint Group hashed out an agreement that mandates a third party investigator would extract any information that would then be passed on to investigators.

“We’ve had some disagreements on how to proceed, but we’ve worked it out,” said Sylint Group President John Jorgenson. “Now we can go forward with the forensics investigation of data collected on Ms. Coleman’s computer.”

Jorgensen said his firm knows Coleman accessed the city’s firewall from the computer on more than one occasion, but is most interested on extensive searches done on the city’s email system Nov. 11. Jorgensen also wants to make sure no other computer was used to access the city’s network from a remote location.

“We’re not sure what kind of content, if any, is on the computer or if there is any other computer, like a desktop computer, involved here,” Jorgensen said. “But the goal is to also determine what was the disposition of the results of the searches performed.”

Coleman’s attorney, Michael Barfield, though, pointed out Coleman was directed to perform the searches by her supervisors.

Although it will take a week to perform the investigation, Jorgensen is going out of town this week and won’t be back for at least two weeks, pushing the timeline back even further.

The commission already approved an additional $15,000 to $20,000 to hire a third-party company to extract any information from Coleman’s personal computer that pertains to city business.

The city has agreed to pay The Sylint Group up to $113,365 for additional services to perform the ongoing investigation. To date, Sylint’s services have cost the city $68,753.

City commissioners expressed frustration with the investigation process.

“This is taking too long,” said Commissioner Shannon Snyder. “We need to get on with it.”

The criminal investigation that involves the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI, meanwhile, is ongoing, and interviews are continuing to see if employees accessed emails that shouldn’t have been available to them.

No charges have been filed, and the investigation could take the rest of the year to be complete.