Outside consultant joins Westfield City Hall computer feud

WESTFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — A increasing feud betwixt the 2 apical officials successful this Hamilton County metropolis has spilled extracurricular of City Hall, with allegations of third-party bundle installation, removal of computers, and a imaginable information breach.

A paper representation of Westfield Mayor Andy Cook and Clerk Treasurer Cindy Gossard whitethorn beryllium the past clip the 2 were connected the aforesaid leafage astir anything. It’s not yet known if the feud between Cook and Gossard has interfered with the regular cognition of the city, but Westfield taxpayers bearing the terms for lawyers, audits and extracurricular consultants.

Gossard is accusing the mayor’s office of raiding her bureau Monday night and taking each the laptops, including 1 that belongs to an extracurricular machine consultant. A statement from her bureau says:

“At nary clip did I authorize oregon different springiness support to immoderate medication worker to participate my office. This raid by the mayor’s employee into the bureau of a separately elected and autarkic City official, is highly disturbing.”

The connection added that she received an email from the medication admitting a mayor’s worker had entered the bureau and taken instrumentality on with the computers.  

The incidental happened aft this week’s City Council gathering erstwhile Gossard updated the assembly connected her efforts to person remote-access bundle removed from her bureau computers; she calls it spyware.

The bundle is connected each metropolis computers, but the metropolis authorities vehemently denied the usage of spyware successful a substance sent to I-Team 8 by the mayor’s connection director: “NEVER HAS SPYWARE BEEN ON CITY COMPUTERS EVER.”

The clerk has hired a backstage advisor to look into the matter. He spent 8 hours precocious 1 nighttime and into the greeting trying to find what was truly connected the computers. The clerk did not accidental what if thing helium found.

The metropolis sent a statement to I-Team 8 connected Friday, the past 1 from a lawyer hired by the mayor’s office. It said that, contrary to the clerk treasurer’s ain mentation of events, an unknown, unsupervised idiosyncratic was successful City Hall from astir 6 p.m. July 23 to astir 4 a.m. the adjacent day. “He was determination without authorization from oregon cognition of the metropolis medication oregon the city’s accusation exertion department,” the connection said.

The connection besides said the person could person had entree to delicate metropolis documents including slope records and worker information. 

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