Oklahoma Co. sheriff's computer security compromised

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel says someone compromised the security of the sheriff's office computers by installing surveillance software on them. <br/><br/>Whetsel says

Tuesday, February 1st 2005, 9:38 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel says someone compromised the security of the sheriff's office computers by installing surveillance software on them.

Whetsel says the software allows access to sensitive information about homeland security, prisoner movements and private personnel files.

He says he found the software on his computer after running a spyware detector out of curiosity. He says the software was also installed on computers of officers in charge of homeland security and of the department's finances.

Whetsel says he doesn't believe any current employee installed the software and that it was cleaned from the computers by a reserve deputy with computer training.

County officials say they haven't determined who installed the software or when. But they say it had to be installed by someone either sitting at the computers or with administrative access to the county's computer network.