It appears that Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) is doubling down on trying to throw employees under the bus in the wake of its 2013 breach affecting 2.5 million. According to a web site created by the attorney for the employees:
The MCCCD Administration is accusing Mr. Corzo of not doing a job that wasn’t his to do, being responsible for systems he wasn’t supposed to be responsible for, knowing about a document that was never shared with him, not communicating upwards when he repeatedly did so, and not doing enough during an incident in 2011 when he was onsite, working with his staff and others to help MCCCD address a small security breach. In 2013 when the second and larger breach took place, Mr. Corzo was no longer assigned to any supervisory or database duties. The ERPs at MCCCD that Mr. Corzo was responsible for were never compromised in 2011. A small database residing on the main maricopa webservers was compromised. This database was the responsibility of the marketing department and the network and server team at MCCCD not Mr. Corzo’s team.
Read more on Maricopa Security Breach.
The residents, taxpayers, and governing board of MCCCD should not allow this travesty to continue. Documentation provided by Mr.Corzo and others raises serious questions about both due process and the accuracy of the administration’s accusations.
As I’ve said before, this case calls for an independent investigation – by Arizona’s state legislature, the state attorney general, Congress, and the Federal Trade Commission. The 2.5 million who have been at risk of identity theft deserve no less. The employees who claim they have been scapegoated and falsely accused deserve no less. And the taxpayers and students of Maricopa County who are now paying more tuition because of the breach costs deserve no less.
Will the MCCCD governing board agree with the chancellor’s recommendation to terminate Mr. Corzo’s employment when the board meets tonight, or will they actually read his lengthy annotated response to the charges and give him an opportunity to testify to them and to call the witnesses he has always sought to call? For the sake of MCCCD and fairness, I hope it’s the latter.
Update: See coverage by Mary Beth Faller in today’s Arizona Republic.