Aha. Sometimes it pays to ask questions about backups.
Yesterday, after reporting on a puzzling report out of Newburgh, NY, I was contacted by a friend who asked me if I would speak with the MidHudson News. I did, and suggested some questions they should be asking.
Today, they report:
One day after it was revealed that Newburgh City Council members’ iPad data that were stored on the cloud had been deleted, it is back.
City Manager Michael Ciaravino told council members at the Thursday night session that because of a data breach, he ordered the data removed. But Councilwoman Cindy Holmes took exception, saying she wanted it restored along with her notes and photos on constituent issues and her accomplishments while on the council for the last two years.
On Friday night, Mayor Judy Kennedy announced all city data had been restored to council iPads and all efforts are being made to recover the personal data.
Read more on MidHudson News. This still sounds more than a tad chaotic and to the extent that there are public records that may be involved, the city needs a comprehensive information management and security system.
Surely there must be some curious Newburgh resident or journalist who will file under FOIA to find out what kinds of information are being stored on iCloud and if any of it involves constituents SSN or other personal information, etc.
And of course, we still don’t know what this alleged “data breach” was that led the city manager to order the data removed, other than it somehow involved his location information being shared with others.