Criminal justice portal down for over two weeks after a breach of gun data. The premier data of California for all issues regarding criminal justice is still down for more than two weeks now after a major data breach involving anyone that tried that get a permit in carrying a concealed weapon (gun) in the past decade in the state.
Criminal Justice Portal Down for Over Two Weeks after Breach of Gun Data
The premier data portal of California for all things criminal justice still remains down for over two weeks now. This is after a major data breach involving anyone who tried to get a permit to carry a concealed gun in the state during the past decade happened.
And as for now, there is still no time frame for when a portal frequently used by researchers, journalists, and the public will be back up.
Two spokespeople for the Attorney General’s Office of California confirmed on background Thursday that the office’s OpenJustice web portal which is a repository for annual statistics on everything ranging from the very number and types of crimes and arrests down to the location and jurisdiction of police-force incidents and deaths in custody — will remain offline indefinitely.
This is set to continue as a full-scale review of the office’s technical services, policies and procedures are underway.
When Did the Incident Start
The platform ‘OpenJustice’ glitched and flatted out on the 28th of June. The incident happened on the same day Attorney General Rob Bonta held a news conference citing that the number of reported hate crimes in the state rose to its highest level since the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. And as Bonta remorsefully discussed the 2021 increases in reported hate crimes across most protected categories of race, ethnicity, and religion, the direct link to the report that contextualized his statements went down. (The report as of now can now however be found using another link.)
The Reason for the Shutdown of the OpenJustice Platform
It was however a massive data breach that is related to something earlier in the week that made the attorney general and the California Department of Justice that he oversees pull the curtain on OpenJustice.
On June 27 which is the same day that Bonta announced a Firearms Dashboard Portal had premiered on the OpenJustice platform, his Justice Department was alerted of the unauthorized release of a trove of personal data and this is including names, birth dates, addresses, and even in some cases the number of driver licenses which belonged to individuals who were granted or denied a permit to carry a concealed weapon between the year 2011 and 2021.
In most cases, internal codes that are related to the same reason someone was prohibited from accessing and owning a firearm also were leaked. The office of Bonta two days after the breach acknowledged the incident.
Attorney General’s Statement Regarding the Event
Bonta in a statement referred to the incident as unacceptable and he also said that he ‘immediately launched an investigation’ that would result in ‘strong corrective measures where necessary.’
‘We acknowledge the stress this may cause those individuals whose information was exposed,’ his statement added ‘I am deeply disturbed and angered.’
Officials of the state justice have not yet stated whether there was foul play in the breach of data or whether it happened because of an external or internal cause. They only stated that the agency ‘was made aware of a disclosure of personal information that was accessible in a spreadsheet on the portal.’
The Result of the Fallout
The result of the fallout swallowed other transparency projects that can easily help the public in keeping tabs on crime and police accountability in their counties and cities. And this is inclusive of visual data representations of domestic violence crimes and the racial disparities behind stops of police.
